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.