IHC upholds death penalty for Mumtaz Qadri

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has reportedly rejected the appeal and upheld the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of former Punjab governor Salman Taseer, under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

According to the Dawn, a two member bench consisting of Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui announced the verdict on Monday.

The bench had reserved their ruling on February 11 after Advocate General Islamabad Mian Abdul Rauf, the prosecutor in the case, and Qadri's counsels, including former Lahore High Court chief justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif and retired Justice Mian Nazeer presented their arguments before the court.

An anti-terrorist court (ATC) in Rawalpindi had handed down death penalty to Qadri in October 2011 on two counts under section 302 PPC and 7 Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) for killing Taseer.

Following the verdict, Qadri's counsels had appealed the ATC's ruling through two applications in the same month.