LHC acquits tailor of blasphemy charge

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, comprising Mr. Justice Sadiq Mahmud Khurram and Mr. Justice Sultan Tanvir, has acquitted an accused who was arrested from the Attock district on blasphemy charges under Section 295(c) of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860.

The court ruled that the eyewitnesses, including Zulfiqar and other fellow tailors, could not be considered credible.The accused had been sentenced to death in September 2021 by the trial court of Mr. Javed Iqbal Bosal in Attock.

His defence counsel subsequently had appealed against the conviction and sentence. The appeal was heard on January 22, 2025, during which arguments were presented by both the complainant and the appellant. The court had then reserved its judgment, which has now been announced.

According to the judgment, Mr. Ali argued that the accused had been falsely implicated by his coworkers, who sought to remove him from the tailoring shop where they worked in Attock due to professional jealousy.

He further contended that the eyewitnesses’ presence was not credible and pointed out that the First Information Report (FIR) had been registered after a delay of 24 hours, despite the police station being only 15–20 minutes away from the alleged place of occurrence.

The bench observed that the alleged incident of blasphemy had never occurred and concluded that the charges were fabricated out of sheer animosity and enmity against the appellant.