Pakistan's Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of Qaiser Ayub, a Christian man convicted of blasphemy for allegedly defiling the name of Prophet Muhammad, drawing sharp condemnation from his defence lawyers who called the ruling 'devastating.' The verdict, widely reported on 16 October 2026, came alongside the court's acquittal of Qaiser's younger brother, Amoon, on an identical charge — a contrast that lawyers say raises serious questions about evidentiary consistency.

The Case Against the Brothers

Qaiser Ayub and Amoon, both Pakistani Christians, were originally convicted and sentenced to death in 2018 on charges of publishing blasphemous content on a website registered in Qaiser's name. Qaiser has maintained that he shut the website down in 2009 and that it was subsequently revived by a Muslim acquaintance, who retained his name in the copyright details. Both brothers were convicted largely on digital evidence drawn from a seized laptop.

Lawyers Question Unequal Application of Evidence

The defence team welcomed Amoon's acquittal but expressed deep concern over how the same body of evidence led to two starkly different outcomes. Nasir Saeed, Director of the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), was quoted as saying: 'If the evidence against one brother was insufficient, how can the other be sent to the gallows based on evidence from the same case?'

Saeed stressed that digital evidence of the kind used in this case demands the highest standards of forensic verification. He urged the Pakistani government to spare Qaiser's life, called for stronger safeguards against the misuse of blasphemy laws, and demanded that accusers be held accountable in cases of wrongful implication, according to reports citing Barnabas Aid.

HRCP Flags Systematic Persecution of Minorities

The verdict arrives as the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has sounded fresh alarm over the state of religious minorities in the country. In its latest report, titled Sanctuary Denied: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2025/26, the HRCP documented what it described as systematic persecution, discrimination, and a denial of equal rights affecting Christian, Hindu, and Ahmadiyya communities.

The report highlighted the ongoing abduction and forced marriage of girls from minority communities, noting that poverty and weak police responses have compounded the victims' vulnerabilities. The HRCP cited the case of Faqir Shiva Kachhi, a Hindu minority rights activist from Sindh who has spent nearly a decade fighting forced conversions of underage Hindu girls, reportedly including threats from a right-wing party for his activism.

According to data cited by Kachhi and referenced in the HRCP report, 36 underage Hindu girls were abducted in 2025, with 32 further cases reported in just the first seven months of 2026. 'And these are the ones we know of. There might have been countless others,' Kachhi was quoted as saying. He added that activists are often forced to stage sit-ins outside police stations simply to get a First Information Report registered.

Blasphemy Laws and the Ahmadiyya Community

The HRCP report also documented that hundreds of people accused of blasphemy in Pakistan remain in legal limbo, while those allegedly running organised entrapment networks have yet to face investigation. It further recorded two extremist attacks on the Ahmadiyya community in Chenab Nagar, alongside what it described as increasingly overt efforts to exclude Ahmadis from public and commercial life.

With Qaiser Ayub's execution sentence now confirmed by the country's highest court, human rights groups are expected to intensify international pressure on Islamabad to reform its blasphemy legislation and ensure due process protections for minority defendants.