Lahore; June 4, 2021: The daily Dawn published the following report under the above heading (extracts):
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday acquitted a Christian couple of blasphemy charges and set aside their death sentence awarded by a district and session court in 2014.
Gojra City police of Toba Tek Singh district had in June 2013 registered a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of a local prayer leader against Shafqat Emanuel, a guard at a local school, and his wife, Shagufta Kausar Masih….
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh announced its verdict in an open court on Thursday and allowed the appeal.
The couple was in prison for the last eight years. It is great that they have been set free. However, who is going to account for the loss of eight years of their lives? It is a long time — very long.
The daily Dawn made editorial comment on this case on June 6, 2021 (Extracts):
“Misused law ….At the time of her arrest, Shagufta worked as a helper at a school and earned a paltry Rs 3,500 a month. Her husband Shafqat, who is reportedly handicapped, owned a mobile repair shop. The couple from Gojra in Toba Tek Singh come from a very humble background, and one can only imagine how their four children must have fared during the prolonged incarceration… The Supreme Court has often warned against false blasphemy accusations and even called on politicians to ensure that those jailed under these offences have not been wrongly accused. Yet little progress has been made on this issue and citizens continue to spend too many years of their life awaiting justice…. This trend must come to an end and our law makers must find a solution so that more innocent citizens do not suffer.”
