Accused in blasphemy case acquitted

Dismissing the Lahore High Court judgment, the apex court on Wednesday acquitted a blasphemy accused. A three-judge bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah heard the appeal of Wajiul Hassan against the LHC verdict. During the proceedings, public prosecutor Amjad Rafiq pleaded that the complainant in this case, Advocate Ismail Qureshi, had filed an application in the Federal Shariat Court to enhance the punishment in the blasphemy cases from life imprisonment to death sentence. The Federal Shariat Court on his application had declared that sentence for blasphemy is death.
The public prosecutor informed that according to Ismail Qureshi, blasphemous letters had been written to him by Wajiul Hassan in 1998. The letters had been sent to Qureshi after the acceptance of his request to the Federal Shariah Court to change the punishment for blasphemy from life imprisonment to death sentence, he added.
The public prosecutor further informed that Ismail Qureshi had lodged a first information report (FIR) against Hassan at Police Station Iqbal Town, Lahore. He told that according to Qureshi, the accused has confessed of writing letters before his company manager Muhammad Waseem and colleague Muhammad Naveed, who were prime witnesses in this case. The prosecutor contended that the accused has also confessed before the witnesses that he converted to Qadiani and sought their help in quashing the case.
The public prosecutor submitted that hand writing sample of the accused was taken before the magistrate and sent to hand writing expert, who had stated that writing on letter and the note matched. The trial court had awarded death sentence to the accused Wajiul Hassan, while the Lahore High Court (LHC) had maintained the sentence.
During the hearing, Justice Sajjad Shah observed that the prosecution had failed to prove that the letters were written by Hassan and dismissed the case. The Supreme Court last year acquitted Aasia Bibi - a Christian woman accused of blasphemy in 2010 and sentenced to death - and set aside an earlier judgment passed by a lower court.
Then Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had set aside the Lahore High Court verdict and directed the authorities to release Aasia Bibi from prison. The 51-year-old Christian woman had been on the death row since November 2010 after she was convicted on charges of committing blasphemy during an argument with two Muslim women in Sheikhupura.