Haider Ali, a 17-year-old Muslim from Pakistan, has finally been acquitted of blasphemy charges, 18 months after he was released on bail. CSI, which provided legal and financial support to the Ali family, welcomes this development. Haider is one of thousands of people, both Christian and Muslim, to have been prosecuted under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.
Haider Ali following his acquittal, more than four years after his arrest aged 13. csi
Haider Ali was just 13 years old when another Muslim falsely accused him of blasphemy in September 2020. He would spend the next three years of his life behind bars. On 7 April 2025, Haider was finally acquitted.
Bail and acquittal
Christian Solidarity International (CSI) learned about the case through a local partner. In 2022, CSI petitioned Pakistan’s then minister of law and justice to drop blasphemy charges against Haider and nine other Pakistani citizens.
Haider’s family engaged a lawyer to try to win his release; CSI helped cover their legal costs. Although Haider was a minor, it was hard to convince the courts to release him since he was charged with the serious crime of blasphemy. In Pakistan, officials who try to acquit people accused of blasphemy often face violence from extremists.
But thanks to the defence counsel’s efforts, the Additional Sessions Court Lahore granted Haider bail in October 2023. It took a further 18 months for his acquittal to be announced.
Speaking to CSI following the court’s decision, Haider paid tribute to his lawyer for standing by him throughout his ordeal.
“My lawyer faced many challenges whenever he had to appear before the court to defend me. There were continued threats to our lives. But I am very grateful to God who protected me and provided me justice in this case based on false allegations.”
“Every day was filled with fear”
The circumstances surrounding Haider’s arrest are unclear. What is known is that another Muslim, Faisal Azi, accused him of tearing pages out of a copy of the Qur’an. His family say Haider would never have done such a thing.
Faisal himself claims that he was doing Haider a favour and protecting him from mob retribution by reporting him to the authorities. “People wanted to kill Haider, but I saved him by handing him over to the police,” he said.
Although just 13 when he was arrested, Haider was not sent to a youth prison, and during his three-year detention shared a cell with six adult men.
“Every day in prison was filled with fear,” Haider told CSI at the time of his release on bail. “I was worried that someone would kill me.”
Suffering of Haider’s family
Haider’s arrest came as a massive shock to his family, and the stress had a huge impact on the health of both his parents. “I was admitted to hospital with a heart attack after my son Haider Ali was accused in the blasphemy case,” his father, Talhat, told CSI. His mother, Muqadesh, could not believe what had happened to her son. “I was at home with my daughters Ayesha and Zainab. After hearing this shocking news, I suffered a mental breakdown and had to have psychiatric treatment,” she said.
When Talhat, who suffers from diabetes, lost a leg to the disease and had to give up his work as a rickshaw driver, CSI stepped in with financial assistance to the family. As a result, Talhat was able to set up a food store, and his wife received a sewing machine so she could make and sell clothes.
Ayesha expressed the family’s relief that Haider is finally free. “For a period of over four years we knew no peace. Now we are so grateful to our God who is the god of miracles and who has set us free from this long misery.”
Weaponization of blasphemy laws
Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws criminalise a range of offences against Islam, including defiling the Qur’an and insulting the prophet. The latter carries the death sentence.
Haider Ali was convicted under section 295-B of Pakistan’s Penal Code, which reads: “Whoever willfully defiles, damages or desecrates a copy of the Holy Qur’an or of an extract therefrom or uses it in any derogatory manner or for any unlawful purpose shall be punishable with imprisonment for life.”
Since Pakistan’s current blasphemy laws came into force in 1987, nearly 2,000 people have been accused of blasphemy, according to a report from 2022; 86 people have been extrajudicially murdered after being accused.
The blasphemy laws have created a climate of impunity for religious terror in Pakistan. Bad actors can easily weaponise false blasphemy accusations, which are difficult to disprove, and these can quickly give rise to religious conflict as mobs take the law into their own hands.
Religious minorities and people of low social status are particularly vulnerable to abuses of the blasphemy laws and are often unable to afford a legal defence.
