Junaid Hafeez

Junaid Hafeez is a former M. Phil English student at a Pakistani university where he was teaching as visiting teacher as well. He was convicted of blasphemy under Pakistan's broad blasphemy laws and sentenced to death. Arrested in 2013, Hafeez was accused of making derogatory comments about the prophet of Islam, Muhammad on social media. Held in solitary confinement since 2014, his trial was repeatedly delayed, and Hafeez's first lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was murdered. In December 2019, Hafeez was convicted and sentenced to death by a Pakistani court. His detention and arrest have been condemned by human rights groups.

Background and arrest Hafeez was born in Rajanpur, Punjab and attended King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Punjab, after being given a gold medal in pre-medical studies at the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education in the Dera Ghazi Khan Division. In 2006 he left his medical studies to focus on English literature at Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in Multan, Punjab. He returned to BZU Multan in 2011 as a graduate student and a visiting lecturer for the English Department while also teaching at the College of Design. and as his thesis, Hafeez was writing an "ethnographic study of masculinity in popular cinema in Multan." He was held at Sahiwal Jail on the charge of violating section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, the blasphemy law that provides for a death sentence for anyone who in any way "defiles" the name of Muhammad. Hafeez's father, Hafeez-ul Naseer, has attributed his arrest to the Islamists' opposition to his son's liberal views, and their desire to get one of their own members an open lecturer position. Since 2018 his conditions have been reported to have become more extreme, and Hafeez's physical and mental health have declined.

Hafeez's case was repeatedly delayed, Human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for Hafeez's immediate and unconditional release and the repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Pakistan author Ali Sethi, in an op-ed published in the New York Times, described Hafeez's case as an example of "Pakistan's Tyranny of Blasphemy" characterized by extremist-led, government-tolerated violence and the murders of political dissidents.

In December 2019, Hafeez was sentenced to death by a court at Multan Central Jail, the high-security prison where Hafeez was held. The verdict prompted an outcry from Hafeez's family and human rights groups. Amnesty International called it a "a vile and gross miscarriage of justice" and human rights activist I. A. Rehman, the former general secretary of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "The verdict is brutal and unjust. He has been in prison for six years for no reason. It is an open fact that trial courts in Pakistan rarely acquit accused in blasphemy cases." Jail officials reportedly feared a mob attack if Hafeez was acquitted, and Hafeez's family said that the court had convicted due to external threats. Hafeez's lawyer Asad Jamal said that Hafeez would appeal the verdict.