A Pakistani court has sentenced to death a lady principal of a personal school in Lahore for committing blasphemy, consistent with press agency PTI. Additional district and sessions judge Mansoor Ahmad observed that the accused, Tanvir, committed blasphemy by making derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad. The court also imposed a fine of PKR 5,000 ($29) on the accused.

The case dates back to September 2013 when Lahore Police booked Tanvir under Section 295C of the Pakistan legal code (PPC) supported the complaint of an area cleric. She was accused of denying the finality of Prophet Muhammad and claimed herself to be the Prophet of Islam.

Tanvir’s counsel Muhammad Ramzan argued that the court should consider that her client was an “unsound minded person”. However, the prosecution stated that “the suspect was fit stand trial as she wasn’t mentally deranged” as per a report by a medical board of the Punjab Institute of psychological state submitted to the court.

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, colonial-era legislation, are long termed controversial. However, their prescribed punishments, amended by former dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, are considered extremely severe. A notorious case of blasphemy grabbed headlines in 2010 when a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia Noreen, popularly referred to as Asia Bibi, was convicted of blasphemy following an argument with a gaggle of girls in 2009 who accused her of insulting the Prophet Muhammed.

Nearly a decade later in October 2018, she was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan thanks to insufficient evidence, although she wasn’t allowed to go away the country until the decision was reviewed. Asia Bibi now lives in Canada at an undisclosed location.

At least 1,472 people are charged under the blasphemy law in Pakistan since 1987. People accused of blasphemy are usually bereft of the proper to a counsel of their choice as most lawyers refuse to require up such sensitive cases.