LAHORE, Pakistan — The Lahore High Court on Wednesday acquitted Dr. Nadir Shafiq, a philosophy professor at a private university here, of blasphemy charges that had kept him in custody since his 2022 arrest, in a ruling that human-rights observers described as rare and narrowly drawn.
Shafiq, 52, had been convicted in 2023 of making “derogatory remarks” against a religious figure during a lecture on comparative ethics. The prosecution relied primarily on the testimony of two students and a partial audio recording of uncertain provenance; in reversing the conviction, a two-judge bench held that the recording had not been properly authenticated under the Qanun-e-Shahadat and that the students’ accounts diverged on material points.
The court did not rule on the constitutionality of the blasphemy statute itself, a provision of the Pakistan Penal Code that carries a mandatory death sentence for certain offenses and has been used, rights groups say, disproportionately against religious minorities and academics. International watchdogs including Amnesty International have long called for the law’s repeal; the Pakistani government has consistently resisted such calls, citing public sentiment and political sensitivities.
What the Ruling Does, and Does Not, Signal
Shafiq’s lawyer, speaking at a brief press conference outside the courthouse, described the acquittal as “a narrow evidentiary victory, not a victory for free expression.” The professor will likely remain under informal protective custody for some time: mob violence around blasphemy cases is a documented pattern in Pakistan, and at least sixteen people accused or acquitted under the statute have been killed by vigilantes in the past decade.
Colleagues at the university said Shafiq had told them during his detention that he would not return to Pakistan after his release. His family has declined to disclose his current whereabouts.
The High Court has in recent years issued a small number of acquittals on evidentiary grounds while leaving the underlying statute untouched — a pattern that one Lahore-based legal scholar called “judicial minimalism under duress.” Legislative reform, the scholar said, remains “politically unthinkable for now.”