Summary Mumtaz Qadri was hailed as a hero by supporters after he shot the governor
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News/AFP) - A former police bodyguard on death row, Mumtaz Qadri for assassinating former governor Punjab Salman Taseer inched closer to execution Monday as the Supreme Court rejected his petition for a sentence review.
Mumtaz Qadri was hailed as a hero by supporters after he shot the governor – accused of blasphemy but never charged or booked, 28 times in broad daylight in an upscale Islamabad market in 2011.
He later confessed to the killing, saying he objected to the politician s calls to reform blasphemy laws.
"The review petition has been dismissed" by a three-judge panel headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Qadri s lawyer Khwaja Muhammad Sharif told AFP.
Sharif said his client s last option was to file a mercy petition to the Pakistani president.
In previous hearings Qadri s lawyers drew on Islamic texts to argue that he was justified in killing Taseer, saying that by criticising the law the politician was himself guilty of blasphemy -- an argument rejected by the lead judge.
