A court in Pakistan in September acquitted a Christian charged with blasphemy, but his supporters did not reveal it until this month due to security concerns, his lawyer said.
Sargodha Magistrate Syed Faizan-e-Rasool on Sept. 27 acquitted 47-year-old Haroon Shahzad of the false blasphemy charge by Muhammad Imran Ladhar on June 30, 2023, after the Muslim complainant retracted his allegation, Christian attorney Aneeqa Maria said.
Ladhar made the allegation after Shahzad posted Bible verses on Facebook. Shahzad, who was granted bail on Nov. 6, 2023 and has been in hiding since then, did not make the acquittal public earlier due to security concerns, Maria added.
“Though the complainant, who was also the prime prosecution witness, exonerated Shahzad of the allegation, the public prosecutor insisted that remaining prosecution evidence was sufficient to convict the accused,” she told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “However, the magistrate noted that cross-examination of the prime witness by the public prosecutor had also failed to favor the prosecution and the case had been dented beyond repair.”
The verdict also observed that the Bible was undisputedly revered by Muslims, and that the Quran also called on Muslims not judge those who believe in the gospel. The magistrate then went on to acquit Shahzad of the charges framed under sections 295-A and 298 of Pakistan’s blasphemy statutes, the attorney said.
Section 295-A relates to “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs” and is punishable with imprisonment of up to 10 years and fine, or both. Section 298 prescribes up to one year in prison and a fine, or both, for hurting religious sentiments.
“The verdict lays bare the profound fragility of justice itself,” Maria said. “It reveals a system in which an individual’s liberty, dignity and entire future can be held hostage by a flawed process, where an accusation alone can unleash turmoil, turn lives upside down and leave families shattered.”
The court has rightly highlighted the injustice in this instance, she noted.
“Yet we are compelled to ask: How many others, without such a clear retraction, endure the same grinding ordeal?” Maria said. “How many lives are left scarred by a process that should protect, not punish, the innocent?”
Shahzad, a paint contractor, on June 29, 2023 posted on his Facebook page 1 Cor. 10:18-21 regarding food sacrificed to idols, as Muslims were beginning the four-day festival of Eid al-Adha, which involves slaughtering an animal and sharing the meat. A Muslim villager took a screenshot of the post, sent it to local social media groups and accused Shahzad of likening Muslims to pagans and disrespecting the Abrahamic tradition of animal sacrifice.
Though Shahzad made no comment in the post, inflammatory or otherwise, the situation became tense after Islamic Friday prayers when announcements were made from mosque loudspeakers telling people to gather for a protest. Fearing violence as mobs grew in the village, most Christian families fled their homes, leaving everything behind.
Previously Shahzad told Morning Star News that the complainant, Ladhar, said to be a member of the now proscribed Islamist extremist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and also allegedly connected with banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, filed the charge because of a grudge.
According to Shahzad, he and his family had obtained valuable government land and allotted it for construction of a church building, and Ladhar and others had filed multiple cases against the allotment and lost all of them after a four-year legal battle.
Regarding the social media post, Shahzad said he had no intention of hurting Muslim sentiments by sharing the biblical verse on his Facebook page.
“I posted the verse a week before Eid al-Adha [Feast of the Sacrifice] but I had no idea that it would be used to target me and my family,” he said. “In fact, when I came to know that Ladhar was provoking the villagers against me, I deleted the post and decided to meet the village elders to explain my position.”
Pakistan, whose population is more than 96 percent Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
