Pakistan court overturns death sentence of woman in blasphemy case

A Pakistani court has acquitted a woman who was sentenced to death in 2022 on blasphemy charges, in what her lawyer described as a landmark judgment in the country’s first-ever “cyber blasphemy” case.

The Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of Aneeqa Ateeq, who had been found guilty by a sessions court in 2022 for allegedly sharing “objectionable content” on WhatsApp.

Ateeq had been handed the death penalty under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code for “insulting the Prophet Muhammad,” along with additional sentences — ten years under Section 295-A for “outraging religious feelings,” three years under Section 298-C for “posing as a Muslim,” and seven years under Section 11 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 for “inciting interfaith hatred.” The sentences were to run concurrently, and she was fined 200,000 rupees.

“This was the first ever cyber blasphemy case registered in Pakistan by the Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan, also known as the Blasphemy Business Group,” her lawyer, Advocate Saif ul Malook, told Nukta after the verdict. “Aneeqa is also the first Muslim woman sentenced to death on blasphemy allegations who has now been acquitted by the court.”

The case was registered on April 13, 2020, after complainant Hasnat Farooq accused Ateeq of posting a WhatsApp status image he considered disrespectful to a religious figure.

Farooq, who said he had been in contact with Ateeq for about 18 months, claimed to have warned her to “repent” before filing a complaint with the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Wing in Rawalpindi.

According to Malook, Farooq was the only witness produced in court. “The major flaw in the case was that the Cyber Crime Wing never documented that it had seized the complainant’s phone,” he said. “Their technical analyst admitted in court that a WhatsApp status disappears within 24 hours, leaving no permanent record.”

Malook added that investigators retrieved chats from Ateeq’s phone showing that Farooq had repeatedly made advances toward her. “When those chats were presented in court, it became clear that Farooq was trying to meet her and sent inappropriate messages, which she consistently rejected,” he said.

The two-member bench - Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Waheed - expressed doubts about the credibility of the evidence. “The judges asked Hasnat Farooq under which Islamic law he had been conversing with a woman for a year and a half,” Malook said. “He had no answer. The judges also remarked that without forensic analysis of the complainant’s phone, there was no case.”

Malook described the acquittal as one of the fastest in Pakistan’s blasphemy law history. “Since Section 295-C was introduced in 1985, no accused person has ever been acquitted within five years of arrest. This is the shortest period in which an accused in a blasphemy case has been released,” he said.

He compared Ateeq’s case to others still pending before courts. “The case of lecturer Junaid Hafeez, arrested in 2013, is still unresolved. A Christian man, Asad Pervez, arrested the same year, remains in jail. Another accused, Zafar Bhatti, detained since 2012, was acquitted in September but tragically died two days later.”

Malook said he had met Ateeq several times at Adiala Jail prior to her acquittal. “She was always calm, neatly dressed, and full of confidence. During our last meeting three months ago, she told me, ‘Sir, I feel my time in jail is over.’ She has spent five years in prison with remarkable courage,” he said.

The detailed judgment is expected to be released in the coming days.

Malook also noted that complainant Hasnat Farooq, who filed the case (FIR No. 25/2020), is named in two other cyber blasphemy complaints — FIR No. 39/2023 and FIR No. 64/2023.

Govt asked to form commission

In a related development, the Islamabad High Court on July 16, 2025, directed the federal government to form a commission within 30 days to review nearly 400 cyber blasphemy FIRs involving around 700 accused individuals.

The order came amid growing concern over the rising number of such cases targeting young Pakistanis. However, the court’s division bench suspended the order on July 25, citing questions over jurisdiction and the commission’s possible effect on ongoing proceedings.