LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) took up former university lecturer Junaid Hafeez’s appeal against his death sentence in a blasphemy case on Tuesday, seeking arguments from the prosecution on the admissibility of electronic evidence.

Hafeez was sentenced to death in 2019 and his appeal against his conviction has been pending since 2020.

A two-judge bench, comprising Justices Sadiq Mahmud Khurram and Muhammad Jawad Zafar, took up the appeal on Tuesday as prosecution lawyer Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry and Hafeez’s lawyer, Advocate Asad Jamal, appeared before the court.

The hearing began with the bench observing that formal notices had not been issued to the parties since the transfer of Hafeez’s appeal from the Multan bench to the principal seat.

The case was transferred on the request of Hafeez’s lawyer in December 2021.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the LHC issued notices on the appeal, which Advocates Jamal and Chaudhry received on behalf of the appellant and the prosecution, respectively, in the court.

The court further stated that it would like to hear the prosecution on the admissibility of electronic evidence involved in the case and the Facebook page attributed to Hafeez.

It then decided to adjourn the hearing till Oct 7, but Hafeez’s lawyer sought a longer adjournment to prepare his arguments.

The bench then said it would announce the date of the next hearing later.

Hafeez — a former visiting lecturer at the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) — was arrested by police on March 13, 2013 and his trial in the blasphemy case, linked to Facebook uploads, began in 2014.

He was sentenced to death by a Multan district and sessions court on December 21, 2019 on blasphemy charges and subsequently appealed his conviction in 2020.

At least seven judges were transferred through the course of Hafeez’s case. As many as 15 prosecution witnesses recorded their statements against Hafeez while 11 others were not called after being declared irrelevant.

The trial was shifted to the Multan Central Jail in April 2014 by the Punjab home department due to security concerns.

One of Hafeez’s previous lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in May 2014 in his office. The month prior to it, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had expressed serious concerns when death threats were extended to Rehman, also the special task force coordinator of the commission.

In December 2014, another lawyer representing Hafeez also received a threat letter from the militant Islamic State group, warning him to withdraw from the case.

The hearing of the appeal has also been deferred multiple times.