The Lahore High Court has clarified a news item published in a section of press regarding the judge who convicted Mumtaz Qadri for murdering former governor Salman Taseer, saying the judge had proceeded to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj, not to seek asylum in the kingdom.
According to LHC Registrar Sohail Nasir, Judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah had gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Haj with the permission of the Lahore High Court. Earlier, news reports said Shah had sought refuge in Saudi Arabia with his family, after receiving death threats from religious extremists.
Shah, who awarded the death sentence to Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri on October 1, had gone on leave after a group of lawyers ransacked his courtroom and several hardline religious groups offered a bounty to anyone who killed him.
