Pak authorities issue order to prevent release of Daniel Pearl's killers

Pakistani authorities on Friday issued an emergency order to prevent the release of four men convicted of murdering US journalist, Daniel Pearl.

According to Geo TV, the order was issued by the Sindh government under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO). The notification said that the release of Omer Saeed Sheikh, Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Mohammad Adil could jeopardise the law and order situation in the province.

The order comes a day after the Sindh High Court overturned the death penalty of prime suspect Omer Saeed Sheikh and acquitted his three accomplices in the case. The court verdict was widely criticised and several organisations asked Sindh's HC to reconsider.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed shock over the high court verdict and it should be challenged at a higher forum.

The National Press Club and the National Press Club Journalism Institute urged Pakistani courts to reconsider a ruling that would lessen the sentence of a man convicted of masterminding the 2002 murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter.

The US House Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs also expressed its "deep concerns" over Pakistan court's decision.

Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story about religious extremists in Karachi.

A graphic video showing his decapitation was delivered to the US consulate in the city nearly a month later. Omar Sheikh was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to death by an anti-terror court.

In January 2011, a report released by the Pearl Project at Georgetown University following an investigation into his death made chilling revelations, claiming that the wrong men were convicted for Pearl's murder.

The investigation, led by Pearl's friend and former Wall Street Journal colleague Asra Nomani and a Georgetown University professor, claimed the reporter was murdered by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of September 11, 2001, attacks, not Omar.