Lahore, Dec 21 (PTI) A Muslim professor was sentenced to death on Saturday by a Pakistani court for an alleged blasphemous Facebook post.

Junaid Hafeez, who was a visiting lecturer at the Department of English Literature of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in Multan city of Punjab Province, was booked on blasphemy charges and was arrested by police on March 13, 2013.

The trial of the case started in 2014 and Hafeez has been lodged in a high-security ward of New Central Jail in Multan.

Additional Sessions Judge Kashif Qayyum sentenced Hafeez to death and imposed a fine of Rs 0.5 million under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), the Dawn News reported.

The court also handed life imprisonment to Hafeez under Section 295-B and 10-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 100,000 under Section 295-A of the PPC.

"All the sentences shall run consecutively and the accused would not be entitled to the benefit of Section 382-B CrPC because in case of blasphemer, this court has got no circumstance for taking a lenient view and it is also not permitted in Islam," read the judgment.

Hafeez's lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in May 2014 in his office.

His parents had earlier this year appealed to former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa to look into their son's case. They sought justice for their son, fearing for his mental and physical health, the daily said.

They had said their son had been languishing in solitary confinement in a cell of the Central Jail, Multan, for the last six years on the false charge of blasphemy.

"Due to transfer of many judges, delaying tactics of prosecution witnesses, and difficulties finding adequate legal counsel for the defence because of the sensitive nature of the case, our son continues to await justice in a fabricated case," Junaid's parents had said in a written appeal to the chief justice.

Hafeez is a masters graduate from Jackson State University in the United States. He earlier won the Fulbright Scholarship. After returning to Pakistan, he joined the BZU's english literature department.

Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, with even unproven allegations often prompting mob violence. Anyone convicted, or even just accused, of insulting Islam, risks a violent and bloody death at the hands of vigilantes.

Rights groups have said the blasphemy laws are routinely abused to seek vengeance and settle personal scores.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)