Pakistan: Release Professor Junaid Hafeez

Professor Junaid Hafeez is a former lecturer and MPhil candidate in the English literature department at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan who has been held in pre-trial detention for over six years in Pakistan.

SAR has issued the below letter to Pakistani authorities, urging them to ensure Mr. Hafeez’s case is finally resolved and his well-being while in custody and following his hoped for speedy release.

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The Honorable Imran Khan
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Islamabad, Pakistan

The Honorable Justice Asif Saeed Khosa
Chief Justice of Pakistan
58 D, Sir Syed Road
Gulberg -III
Lahore
Pakistan

The Honorable Justice Asif Saeed Khosa
Chief Justice of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue
G-5/2 Islamabad
Pakistan

November 6, 2019

RE: Professor Junaid Hafeez

Your Excellencies:

I write on behalf of the Scholars at Risk Network to express grave concern for Junaid Hafeez, a former lecturer and MPhil candidate in the English literature department at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan who has been held in pre-trial detention for over six years. We respectfully urge you to call on the appropriate authorities to ensure that Mr. Hafeez’s case is finally resolved expeditiously and in a manner consistent with Pakistan’s domestic and international legal obligations to ensure due process, fair trial, freedom of expression, and related rights. We further urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure Mr. Hafeez’s physical and mental health and safety, both while in custody and following his hoped for speedy release.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of more than 500 universities and colleges in 39 countries dedicated to protecting the human rights of scholars around the world, and to raising awareness, understanding of, and respect for the principles of academic freedom and its constituent freedoms of expression, opinion, thought, association, and travel. In cases like that of Mr. Hafeez, involving alleged infringement of these freedoms, Scholars at Risk investigates hoping to clarify and resolve matters favorably.

Mr. Hafeez was arrested in 2013 after a group of students accused him of making blasphemous statements on social media. In fact, the allegation appears based only a printout purporting to show that he had not deleted a post that he did not in fact author, but which was shared with him by another person on Facebook. Despite the apparent lack of the evidence that Mr. Hafeez committed the offense, the case has continued for more than six-and-a-half years, with Mr. Hafeez in detention and in solitary confinement continuously since May 2014.

During this time Mr. Hafeez’s previous attorney, Rashid Rehman, was murdered in May 2014 after being subjected to death threats and other pressures. The case has been transferred between eight separate judges, and subjected to numerous procedural delays, extending Mr. Hafeez’s prolonged imprisonment without conviction. The case is currently pending at Multan District and Sessions Courts before Mr. Kashif Qayyum, Additional Sessions Judge. On September 11, 2019, the prosecution submitted three additional evidentiary applications, potentially delaying the trial further. These applications were reportedly dismissed, and the case should finally be nearing its end. We understand, however, that the prosecution has sought an additional adjournment and submitted yet another application, attempting to delay a final adjudication again.

We welcome any additional information that may explain these events or clarify our understandings, but absent this we are not aware of any valid investigatory or legal justification for extending Mr. Hafeez’s detention and the proceedings against him. We are concerned that his continuing detention violates Pakistan’s domestic and international legal obligations relating to due process, fair trial, and the humane treatment of prisoners, including under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a party. We therefore respectfully urge you to intervene with the appropriate authorities to ensure that Mr. Hafeez’s case is not subject to any further delay; that the case against him proceeds with due regard for international standards relating to due process and fair trial, freedom of expression, and related rights; and that his physical and mental health and safety are protected during the remainder of his time in custody and following his acquittal.

We appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Robert Quinn
Executive Director

CC:

Mohammad Usman Buzdar Chief Minister Government of Punjab Province’ Chief Minister Secretariat’ 5-Club Road GOR-I, Lahore, Punjab
Pakistan
Fax: +92 42 99205065
Email: cmcomplaintcell@cmpunjab.gov.pk

Mr. Ehtisham Qadir
Office of the Prosecutor General, Punjab
Kasuri Tower, 4 – Fane Road,
Opposite Punjab Bar Council, Lahore
Pakistan
Email: pso.pgp@gmail.com

Arif Alvi
President of Pakistan President’s Secretariat Islamabad
Pakistan
Fax: +92 51 9207458
Email: publicmail@president.gov.pk

Shireen Mazari
Federal Minister for Human Rights
Ministry of Human Rights
State Life Building No. 5, Blue Area,
Jinnah Avenue, China Chowk
Islamabad
Pakistan
Fax: +92 51 9204108
Email: contact@molaw.gov.pk

The Honorable Michelle Bachelet
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org
Fax: +41 22-917-9011

Dr. Ahmed Shaheed
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations at Geneva
8-14 avenue de la Paix
CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland
E-mail: freedomofreligion@ohchr.org,
urgent-action@ohchr.org

The Honorable Mike Pompeo
United States Secretary of State Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
United States of America