SC upholds Mumtaz Qadri’s death sentence

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence awarded to Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed killer of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, and allowed the Federation’s appeal seeking restoration of terrorism charges against the accused.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan dismissed the appeal filed by Mumtaz Qadri who was convicted by the trial court for killing Salmaan Taseer.
The court in a short order dismissed the appeal filed by Mumtaz Qadri against the decision of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) upholding the verdict of the trial court awarding death sentence under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
“We are grateful to the valuable assistance provided by the counsels for the petitioner and the criminal appeal filed by the appellant is dismissed,” the court ruled in a short order.
The court restored the conviction and sentence awarded to the accused by the trial court and allowed the Federation’s appeal, seeking restoration of terrorism charges against the accused earlier set aside by the IHC.
Mumtaz Qadri, a former commando of the Punjab Police’s Elite Force, was sentenced to death by the trial court under Section 7(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for killing the former Punjab governor in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market on January 4, 2011.
Mumtaz Qadri had confessed before the trial court that he killed Salmaan Taseer for criticising the blasphemy law.
After his conviction by the trial court, Mumtaz Qadri had challenged his conviction in the IHC and the court on March 9, 2015 had dismissed the appeal of Qadri against the two sentences awarded by the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in October 2011.
The court, however, had set aside the conviction of Qadri under Section 7 of the ATA but upheld the death sentence under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, meaning that Qadri was guilty of murder but not of terrorism.
The IHC in a 64-page verdict had ruled, “The conviction of appellant recorded by the trial court under Section 7(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act is set aside, the appeal to this extent is allowed and appellant is acquitted from the said charge whereas conviction and sentence recorded under Section 302(b) PPC is upheld and appeal to this extent is dismissed.
“It is amazing to note that the appellant (Mumtaz Qadri) took protections and rights guaranteed by the Constitution but deprived deceased (Salmaan Taseer) from all constitutional guarantees,” the IHC had ruled.
Later, Mumtaz Qadri had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict of the IHC, upholding his death sentence.
Similarly, having reservation on the findings of the IHC, the federal government had also challenged in the Supreme Court the verdict of the IHC removing terrorism charges against Mumtaz Qadri.
The apex court on May 14, 2015 had admitted for regular hearing the appeals filed by both Mumtaz Qadri and the Federation against the verdict of the IHC, upholding the death sentence of Mumtaz Qadri.
The apex court granted leave to both appeals filed by Qadri and the Federation against the IHC’s decision and decided to hear it in the month of October.
On Wednesday, the court after the conclusion of arguments of Justice (retd) Nazir Akhtar and Justice (retd) Khawaja Sharif, counsels for Mumtaz Qadri, and Mian Rauf for the Federation, dismissed the criminal appeal filed by Mumtaz Qadri and upheld his death sentence awarded under Section 7 of the ATA and under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The court also allowed the appeal filed by the Federation against the IHC’s verdict, removing terrorism charges against Qadri.
Earlier, both the counsels for Qadri pleaded before the court to award lesser sentence to their client as he had no personal grudge against Salmaan Taseer. They further contended that in most of the murder cases, death sentence was not awarded by the courts.