Pakistan upholds death sentence for politician's killer
A court in Pakistan has upheld a death sentence for a police bodyguard who killed a senior politician in the capital Islamabad back in 2011.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the head of a three-member Supreme Court bench hearing appeals, on Wednesday confirmed the death sentence against Mumtaz Qadri, a former police bodyguard, who assassinated Salmaan Taseer, the former governor of the country's powerful province of Punjab.
The bench also restored Qadri's terrorism conviction removed by a lower court in March.
According to Muhammad Amir Malik, a senior lawyer, Qadri's terrorism conviction means that the deceased's family, would not be able to forgive the murderer.
"This judgment has also closed for him the option of seeking forgiveness from the family of the deceased because the restoration of the terrorism conviction means that (the) state will itself become a party against the convict," AFP quoted the senior lawyer as saying.
Qadri shot Taseer 28 times while guarding him in an Islamabad market in early 2011.
Taseer, the high-profile member of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and a close ally of former president, Asif Ali Zardari, was killed because of his opposition to the blasphemy law in the country.
Critics say Pakistan's blasphemy laws are largely misused, with hundreds of people languishing in jails under false charges. In most cases, even unproven allegations frequently stir mob violence and bloodshed.
The developments come at a time when the Islamabad government is trying to tackle the growing militancy, political instability and extremism in the country.
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