Held in solitary confinement since 2014, his trial was repeatedly delayed, and Hafeez's first lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was murdered.
[1] In 2006 he left his medical studies to focus on English literature at Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in Multan, Punjab.
[2] He returned to BZU Multan in 2011 as a graduate student and a visiting lecturer for the English Department while also teaching at the College of Design.
[5] He was held at Sahiwal Jail on the charge of violating section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, the blasphemy law that provides for a death sentence for anyone who in any way "defiles" the name of Muhammad.
[4][3][6] Hafeez's father, Hafeez-ul Naseer, has attributed his arrest to the Islamists' opposition to his son's liberal views, and their desire to get one of their own members an open lecturer position.
[6] Hafeez was accused of making derogatory comments about Muhammad on Facebook, and of hosting the British-Pakistani novelist Qaisra Shahraz.
[2] He was accused of using the account Mulla Munnafiq to comment about Muhammad's wives in the closed group "So-Called Liberals of Pakistan."
The police claimed to have gathered 1200 pages of material that incriminates him from his computer as well as a book called "Progressive Muslims" that he had received.
[6][5] Amnesty International has designated Hafeez a prisoner of conscience, "detained solely for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.