LAHORE, March 29: An additional district and sessions judge from Pattoki held trial of an alleged blasphemer at the Kot Lakhpat jail here and awarded him death sentence on Thursday.

A case under section 295(a) and b of the CrPC was registered against Abdul Hameed, 45, on the complaint of a prayer leader, Qari Ghulam Mustafa.

The complainant had alleged on March 3, 2006, that the convict had at his house a replica of holy Ka`aba besides some blasphemous words added to Kalma and written on the model.

Convict’s counsel Pervaiz Aslam Chaudhry said that the court had ignored some important legal aspects while deciding the case. He said a blasphemy case was required to be investigated by an official not less than the rank of an SP. In this case, he added, a sub-inspector did the job and that, too, in just two days.

The counsel said another of his argument that complainant in a blasphemy case should be a provincial or federal representative was also turned down by the court. Above all, he said, the convict himself had denied charges on oath.

The counsel said a property dispute between the convict and one of the prosecution witnesses, Rana Shamoon, was basically a bone of contention behind the registration of the case.

He added that he would appeal against the decision within a week in the Lahore High Court.