The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a criminal review petition filed against Mumtaz Qadri's capital punishment who had confessed to killing the then governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer. Four years ago, one of Taseer' bodyguards, Qadri, a former commando of Punjab police's Elite Force, shot him dead in Islamabad's Kohsar Market.
Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) Rawalpindi awarded death sentence to Qadri on two counts under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) in October 2011. Qadri' counsel had invoked the Islamabad High Court's (IHC) jurisdiction against the ATC verdict with a plea to quash the death sentence of their client and to declare Section 7 of the ATA void in the matter.
Accepting the plea filed against Section 7 of the ATA, the IHC upheld the ATC death sentence, however, the Supreme Court overturned the IHC verdict in October 2015. Dismissing the plea, a three-member bench led by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa said that death sentence was awarded in the current matter in accordance with the law.