Blasphemy death row convict await trial

No lawyer willing to represent Anwar Kenneth held by police since June 2001

ISLAMABAD:

After the recusal of five state lawyers, the Supreme Court has asked the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) to provide a counsel to represent a convict, who is on death row for the last two decades in a blasphemy case.

The convict, Anwar Kenneth, a former official of the fisheries department, was accused of distributing a pamphlet containing blasphemous material.

It has been reported that he was arrested by Lahore’s Gawalmandi police on June 15, 2001, while distributing a pamphlet.

Later, he had told a court that he had done nothing except sending the pamphlet to the heads of Muslim states.

In July 2002, the trial court had sentenced him to death.

The Lahore High Court on June 30, 2014 confirmed his death sentence.

Subsequently, the convict had filed a jail petition which was converted into criminal appeal in 2017.

Later, the SC Registrar Office deputed more than five state lawyers, but they recused themselves from the case.

A three-judge bench of the apex court led by Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and comprising Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Athar Minallah on January 24 took up the petition.

The order stated that at the very outset, it had been stated by Arshad Ali Chaudhry advocate that he was appointed at state expense to represent the appellant but later he did not want to appear in this case.

The bench noted that the appellant in this case was sentenced to death, therefore, without the assistance of a counsel, the matter could not proceed forward.

“In this view of the matter, it seems appropriate and in the fitness of things to forward the matter to the Pakistan Bar Council to provide a counsel from amongst the list of Legal Aid Committee to represent the appellant before us in the interest of safe dispensation of criminal justice,” the order read.

The court also asked the PBC to come up with a counsel after four weeks.

One state counsel, who read the case file, stated that there were admitted facts against the convict. He, however, doubted his mental health.

Saiful Malook, who has represented several blasphemy suspects, including Aasia Bibi, said though he did not know the facts of the case but if the court asked him, he would be willing to represent the convict.