Pak SC upholds death sentence of killer of former Punjab Guv

Islamabad, October 7

Pakistan's Supreme Court refused to reverse death sentence given to the killer of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer for calling for a reform of the nation’s blasphemy law.

In 2011, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot dead by a bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, after he had sought a presidential pardon for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.

Tial court sentenced him Qadri — a sentence upheld by the Islamabad High Court earlier this year — to death the same year.

The high court, howver, rejected terrorism charges.

His execution assumes significance especially given the Pakistan government assumed reluctance to hang Qadri since only those convicted for terrorism were previously hanged. This changed in March, when Paksitan lifted its moratorium on death penalty.

Qadri can now file a petition for clemency with the president — his very last legal remedy.

His lawyer could not be reached for comment immediately.

Blasphemy law was introduced in Pakistan by former military dictator Zia-ul Haq in 1980s.

Judges in predominantly Muslim Pakistan are reluctant to hear blasphemy cases, as the presentation of evidence in court can itself be considered a new infringement of the law.

But while hearing Qadri's appeals, judges said criticising the blasphemy law did not amount to blasphemy — a small victory in a country where calls for the law's reform have led to several assassinations and those acquitted of the charge have often been lynched.

Taseer was an outspoken critic of the harsh blasphemy law, saying it was being misused.

Two months after Taseer's murder, Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, was murdered by the Taliban for demanding changes to the blasphemy law.

Last year, gunmen posing as clients shot dead a prominent human rights lawyer defending a professor accused of blasphemy.

Many view Qadri as a hero and some lawyers showered him with rose petals when he arrived in court days after the killing. The judge who first convicted him was forced to flee the country after death threats.

An anti-terrorism court handed down a double death sentence for murder and terrorism in late 2011. Qadri appealed, and in March, the Islamabad High Court upheld the murder sentence, while striking down the terrorism conviction. — Agencies