Judge Mian Amir Habib handed the death sentence to Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar in a jail in the town of Toba Tek Singh on Friday, defense lawyer Nadeem Hassan told AFP.
Both denied the charges, Hassan said, adding that they would appeal the sentence.
Maulvi Mohammad Hussain, the prayer leader at a local mosque in Gojra, lodged a complaint against couple on July 21 last year for sending him a text message which he said was insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.
Hussain accused the husband of sending the message from his wife's cellphone.
However, lawyer Hassan said that the text originated from a cellphone which the couple had lost some time before the incident, so they could not have sent the message.
The lawyer said that the couple had suspected rivals of implicating them into blasphemy case to settle personal scores and that they had ties with the complainant.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com