ZAFAR BHATTI, the longest-serving blasphemy prisoner in Pakistan, had been released for only two days before he died on Sunday, after suffering a heart attack.
Mr Bhatti, aged 62, had been in prison since 2012, and had always denied the charges.
The pastor, who had founded the Jesus World Mission Church, died at his home in Rawalpindi, in the province of Punjab.
The news was announced by Mr Bhatti’s lawyer, Saif ul Malook, who had told the judge that the case had relied on “only corroborative evidence since the main evidence had been discarded”. The Lahore High Court accepted this and acquitted Mr Bhatti on 2 October.
Shortly before his death, Mr Bhatti had expressed his gratitude to the British Asian Christian Association (BACA) for its support, and said that Christians in Pakistan “lived under the sword” of the country’s much-criticised blasphemy laws.
Mr Bhatti was accused of sending two text messages that allegedly dishonoured the Prophet Muhammad and his mother. He was held for five years before his case was heard. In 2017, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, which, in 2022, was converted to a death sentence (News, 14 January 2022).
A spokeswoman for the BACA, Hannah Chowdhry, said that Mr Zafar had had a long history of poor health and had complained about delays and inadequate treatment from prison doctors. He underwent surgery after heart attacks in 2019 and 2020, and suffered from high blood pressure and advanced diabetes. The diabetes had led to severe gangrene, impairing his ability to walk in his final months, she said. The BACA will continue to support Mr Bhatti’s widow, Nawab Bibi, who is also in poor health.
The charity told Mr Bhatti that it had sought help from the British Government to relocate the couple to safety abroad, arguing that even after his release they would not be safe in Pakistan. “We wrote repeatedly to Members of Parliament, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the Home Office. Unfortunately, these efforts met with very limited response,” Ms Chowdhry said. She added that the BACA had raised the matter with Fiona Bruce, who until May last year was the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, “at two separate meetings last year, but no assistance was forthcoming”.
The FCDO does not comment on individual cases, but, last year, made Pakistan one of ten focus countries for its work on freedom of religion or belief. It is understood that in-country staff frequently raise concerns around the blasphemy laws with government officials in Islamabad.
Lord Alton, a Roman Catholic crossbench peer who co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Pakistani Minorities, took up Zafar’s case with the Government in 2022, and has urged the UK Government to raise such cases with Pakistan and to press for the reform of the blasphemy laws.
He said: “The UK Government could do far more to support Pakistan’s persecuted minorities and link its substantial aid programme to supporting them, and to working for improvements in their treatment — not least via education, employment, and anti-discrimination measures.”
But he said that when he had met Pakistani supreme-court judges and government officials to raise Ms Bibi’s case, they were “privately very receptive”, but well aware that two politicians had been “murdered for calling for reforms to the blasphemy laws”.
He said: “If, for now, the repeal of the blasphemy laws is not a realistic option, reforms could be implemented which could at least lead to prosecution of anyone using the blasphemy laws to bring vexatious and false cases against vulnerable members of Pakistan’s minorities.”
