The counsel for Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against his client’s death sentence.
The convict’s lawyer maintained that the Islamabad High Court’s ruling of a death sentence for Qadri is not in accordance with the law and constitution of Pakistan as the murder was caused by ‘provocation’.
According to Qadri’s counsel Barrister Khawaja Sharif, the appeal was filed in the SC’s Lahore Registry on April 8 but the court is yet to acknowledge the petition. Following the IHC’s ruling of a death penalty for Mumtaz Qadri, the convict was expected to submit an appeal in the SC.
Last month, the IHC rejected Qadri’s application against his death sentence under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) but accepted his application to void ATA’s Section 7, after which Qadri’s counsels decided to challenge the IHC’s ruling in the SC.
Qadri’s petition had demanded that his death sentence should be quashed and the second asked for Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to be declared void from the sentencing.
In Oct 2011, an anti-terrorist court (ATC) in Rawalpindi had sentenced Qadri to death on two counts under section 302 PPC and 7 Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for killing Taseer. Following the sentencing, Qadri’s legal team had challenged the ATC’s decision through two applications the same month.
Qadri had confessed to shooting Taseer dead outside an upmarket coffee shop close to the latter’s residence in the capital on January 4, 2011.
Barrister Khawaja Sharif is himself becoming party to a criminal act that is murder when the murderer was assigned to protect the Governor.”Provocation” ,when and by who? Hon’ble Judges know better than I can say. Mr Defence Lawyer’s license should be revoked and he be served a suitable admonition.
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