unaid Hafeez, 40, once a lecturer in English, has spent almost a third of his life in solitary confinement following his arrest in March 2013 on a blasphemy charge allegedly orchestrated by an extremist group through a mob at Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan.

During the first six years of his detention, he faced extremely difficult circumstances. In 2019, amid threats to his life, he was convicted of blasphemy awarded a death sentence. These included the withdrawal from the case by his first counsel following threats; the targeted killing of his second counsel; changes of judges assigned to hear the matter amid security concerns and challenges to holding a trial in an open court.

During the trial, the complaint group distributed pamphlets in the lawyers’ chambers in Multan, threatening anybody who agreed to defend Junaid in the case with death.

In the end a district judge sentenced him to death following a jail trial held under extraordinary security arrangements. His third counsel continued to receive threats until the trial ended in December 2019.

Ever since, he has been in jail, mostly in isolation, waiting for his appeal to be heard by the Lahore High Court. The appeal was filed in early 2020. It was transferred from the Multan bench to Lahore and listed for hearing a few times but dropped, apparently for technical reasons.

Regular hearing, by a two-member bench of the Lahore High Court, started last week. The court sought assistance from the prosecutor on the admissibility of forensic and digital evidence in the case at the next hearing, scheduled for mid-October.

Multan police arrested the suspect on March 13, 2013, following a blasphemy accusation levelled against him by a student group. The group alleged that Junaid was hosting internet pages where ‘sensitive’ questions of a religious nature were raised. The first information report accused him of ‘liking’ one such post.

There was a campaign at the university to incite violence and hatred against Junaid, forcing him to flee the campus. The FIR included Section 295-C.

He had allegedly created the Facebook pages titled: So-Called Liberals of Pakistan. The police said they also gathered other material to use against him from his computer and recovered a book from his room.

The appeal was filed before Lahore High Court in early 2020. It was transferred from the Multan bench to Lahore. It was later listed for hearing a few times but dropped, apparently for technical reasons.

According to university colleagues, speaking on the condition of anonymity, Junaid’s progressive views, expressed openly, were the key reason for the campaign against him. The case was considered by most students and teachers as politically motivated. According to some members of the group that was pursuing Junaid, he had “crossed the limits.”

According to many students, the group tried to control the campus through moral policing.

Legal teams on both sides have sounded confident.

“The court has taken up the matter. It has instructed the prosecution to satisfy the court on digital evidence and its admissibility. We hope that the appeal will be decided soon,” Junaid’s counsel and senior lawyer Saiful Malook said.

On the other hand, Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry, the lawyer for the prosecution, said, “We have oral, digital and documentary evidence in the case. We hope that the court will dismiss the appeal and upholding the trial court’s verdict.” He said delays in the hearing were not unique to the cases, adding that some other criminal cases had been pending for many years.

Blasphemy case accused are considered among the most vulnerable in a hostile social environment.

Junaid’s father, Hafeez-ul-Naseer, from a humble background in Rajanpur, has sought a fair and speedy trial for his son.

After bail was denied the first time, no effort was made to see bail again.

Junaid’s is one of the most reported cases in the history of blasphemy law trials in Pakistan. Asia Bibi, a Christian citizen, accused of blasphemy in 2009 was awarded the death penalty by a trial court in 2010. The Lahore High Court rejected her appeal in 2014. Later, the Supreme Court of Pakistan accepted her appeal in 2018. In early 2019, the Supreme Court also set aside the review petition against the decision. She left the country immediately afterwards.

Earlier, the then Punjab governor, Salmaan Taseer, was shot dead by one of his official security guards for speaking in favour of Asia Bibi and visiting her in jail to express solidarity with her. This incident was followed by the murder of the then federal minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti.

The author is a staff reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].