Pak court sets aside death sentence of former military officer in blasphemy case

LAHORE, Feb 9 : A high court in Pakistan has set aside the death sentence of a former military officer in a blasphemy case and acquitted him for “want of evidence,” a court official said on Monday.

A sessions court had awarded a death sentence to Col (R) Muhammad Arif last year for allegedly passing insulting remarks about the Prophet in Rawalpindi city, some 250kms from Lahore.

An activist of radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, which was recently proscribed by the Shehbaz Sharif government, was complainant in this case.

According to Col Arif’s counsel Imran Malik, his client was present with his wife at a restaurant located in a market in Lal Kurti, Rawalpindi, in 2024 when four young men started making inappropriate remarks toward his wife.

“When Col Arif attempted to stop them, they verbally abused him, which led to a physical altercation between them. Col Arif warned the assailants that he would lodge a complaint with the relevant military authorities so that action could be taken against them,” he said.

He added that one of the four men, Kamran, was an office-bearer of banned TLP and out of fear that military authorities might initiate proceedings against them, these men gave the incident a religious colour and had a blasphemy case registered against Col Arif.

He said the TLP activists also surrounded a police station where the army officer was kept, demanding to hand him over to them. Upon assurance from senior police officers that justice would be ensured in this case they dispersed.

Last year, the sessions court Rawalpindi awarded Col Arif death penalty who challenged the verdict in the Lahore High Court.

A divisional bench of LHC comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Tariq Bajwa heard the appeal of the convict.

Col Arif’s counsel argued in the LHC that the prosecution had been unable to find any independent witness to corroborate the complainant’s version that the convict passed derogatory remarks about the Prophet.

The incident was merely a physical altercation and the police neither recorded the statements of eyewitnesses during the investigation nor conducted an independent inquiry.

“After hearing the arguments of both sides, the LHC last week set aside the death sentence awarded by the sessions court and acquitted Col Arif, remarking that it appeared the trial court had failed to apply its judicial mind while deciding the case and did not properly assess the factual matrix,” the court official told PTI.

He said the LHC observed that the police neither properly investigated the case nor followed the lawful course required to bring the matter to its logical conclusion.

This case shows that in Pakistan in most blasphemy cases the real cause of the dispute happens to be a “personal grudge or private conflict.” (PTI)