LAHORE, Pakistan — An 18-year-old Christian is still languishing in jail a month after winning bail in all three blasphemy cases against him as a trial court is delaying his release, his father said.
Sargodha Additional Sessions Judge Naveed Khaliq initially gave the family of Akash Karamat, who has been jailed for 18 months in three blasphemy cases, the impression that he would accept their March 5 applications to accept a bail bond of 100,000 rupees each (over $1,100 USD) as per a high court’s orders but kept delaying the written order on one pretext or another, said Karamat’s father, Karamat Masih.
“The high court had granted bail to my son against three personal sureties amounting to 100,000 Pakistani Rupees each or submission of cash bail bonds of the same amount on Dec. 18, Feb. 13 and Feb. 19, respectively,” Masih told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. “No person in our family and among our relatives owns registered properties as per the court’s requirements, so I had no other option but to raise the bail money from various sources.”
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Masih, a tailor who now works as a laborer after his family was forced to leave their hometown due to his son’s arrest on Aug. 27, said that after the initial week’s delay, the judge said he would not accept the cash securities because Akash Karamat’s co-accused, Zimran Asim, had failed to appear in court after obtaining bail.
“He said that Akash would also disappear if there were no guarantors involved in the process,” Masih said. “I personally, as well as our lawyer’s associate, have repeatedly pleaded with the judge to give us his decision in writing so that we can move the high court. We have been going to the trial court every day for the written order but have returned empty-handed.”
On Wednesday, Masih’s wife accompanied him to the court, and the impoverished couple waited for over four hours to plead before the judge, he said.
“Finally, the judge asked us to come forward and categorically told us that he would not give a written decision on our applications,” he said, saying the judge told them, “The high court has given the bail orders, so you should ask it to accept the cash sureties.”
This is not the first time the judge has delayed a decision in his son’s case, he said.
“Earlier when our attorney submitted an application with the judge for declaring Akash a juvenile, he sat on the decision for six months,” Masih said. “Now he has dragged the matter for 15 days, when he could have simply rejected the applications so that we could go to the next forum, i.e. the Lahore High Court.”
Masih said there was no doubt that the judge was under immense pressure from Islamists because of the sensitivity of the blasphemy cases, “but isn’t it his responsibility to decide the matter as per the law even if it is against us?”
Suffering from a kidney ailment that requires surgery, Masih said he has been delaying treatment because no other family members could pursue his son’s release.
“I have even showed the judge my medical reports and told him that despite severe pain, I’ve been coming to the court every day for my son’s release,” he said.
Akash Karamat’s attorney, Asad Jamal, said that the unjustified delay in releasing him warranted action under Article 199 of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan. Article 199 grants high courts the power to issue writs, including those for the enforcement of fundamental rights, if no other adequate remedy exists, and to ensure that individuals in custody are not held unlawfully.
“We will now move the Lahore High Court for its intervention under Section 561-A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC),” he told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.
Section 561-A of the CrPC grants high courts inherent powers to make orders necessary to give effect to any order under the CrPC, prevent abuse of court process, or secure the ends of justice.
The attorney has successfully defended several people charged with false accusations of blasphemy. He is also representing the National Commission for Human Rights in a petition filed by Islamist group Khatam-e-Nabuwwat Forum seeking to prevent any possible adverse action by the government against a “blasphemy business group” on the basis of two separate investigative reports by the NCHR and the Special Branch of the Punjab Police.
He said he hoped that the high court would take up the petition as an urgent matter next week.
Akash Karamat and Asim, 35, were accused of writing blasphemous posters and desecrating the Quran in areas of Sargodha in Punjab Province, allegedly in retaliation for the Aug. 16, 2023, Muslim mob attacks on multiple churches and homes of Christians in Jaranwala, Faisalabad District, after two Christian men were accused of committing blasphemy. He was charged under multiple sections of the blasphemy law, including Section 295-C, which carries a mandatory death penalty and life imprisonment.
Pakistan is ranked No. 8 on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult countries to be a Christian.
This article was originally published at Christian Daily International–Morning Star News
