Pakistan

Scores of lawyers gather showing support for ‘assassin’

Court gives suspect in one-day physical transit remand.

Umer Nangiana January 06, 2011

ISLAMABAD: The suspected killer of Salman Taseer was produced before a judicial duty magistrate amid tight security and heated slogans on Wednesday. The judge gave police a one-day physical transit remand of the suspect.

The District Court Islamabad premises were sealed and the area was cordoned off with the help of police commandos before the suspect was taken out of the Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC).

Initially, the police were reluctant to take the suspect to the court room and requested the judge to come to the police offices. However, not only the judge, Naeem Shaukat, declined the request but dozens of lawyers gathered outside the court room insisted that the suspect be made to walk through the lawyers to the court room.

With his eyes covered with a cap and his hands cuffed behind the body, the first thing Malik Mumtaz Qadri would have heard, the moment he stepped out of the APC, was a slogan ‘Namoos-e-Rasool Pe Jaan bhi qurban hai’ (roughly translating to ‘we are willing to lay down our lives for the Prophet’s honour’).

Rose petals were showered on him and heated slogans and roaring applause by dozens of people standing in the parking lot just outside the court room could be heard.

The concerned policemen quickly bundled Qadri into the APC, which soon vanished from the scene. So did Qadri’s supporters, the moment TV cameras stopped rolling.

Earlier some three hundred lawyers volunteered to represent Qadri in the court and defend his case. All of them put their signatures on the power of attorney to fight Qadri’s legal battle free-of-charge, even up to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

One of Qadri’s lawyers, Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf Gujjar, talking to media, complained that the police did not allow the suspect to talk to his lawyers despite court orders and shifted him to an unknown location.

The city police will produce Qadri before the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Rawalpindi, once they re-open after winter vacation on Thursday, for obtaining his physical remand.

He was booked under sections 7-ATA and 302/109 on the complaint of Taseer’s son Shehryar Taseer in an FIR registered in the Kohsar Police Station.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (16)

No Name | 13 years ago | Reply What a shameless act by the so called defenders of constitution and Law. to take out a procession in support of an assassin. It is one thing to defend an accused but another supporting the actor of crime !!!! What message are we sending the world. To all those Lawyers supporting the Assassin maybe you need to rethink about your profession and your professionalism

shahzad hussain | 13 years ago | Reply Can any lawyes amongst those blogging let me know the following 1) has any of the sentences in the aforesaid cases in the past relating to blashemy been upheld by the supreme court. And 2) when the alleged culprit under this law is being examined can the charge against him or her be repeated or will that constitue blashemy.

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User | 13 years ago | Reply What a shameless act by the so called defenders of constitution and Law. to take out a procession in support of an assassin. It is one thing to defend an accused but another supporting the actor of crime !!!! What message are we sending the world. To all those Lawyers supporting the Assassin, Maybe you need to rethink about your profession and your professionalism

A B | 13 years ago | Reply Qadri must be brought to account for what he has done and Asia must be given a fair trial (praying for justice) and the government needs to take a strict stance to ensure it doed. But i must say you too have very extreme views and are also part of the problem we have. Our media must act with maturity, responsibilty and integrity. Your article should not have been published.

Moazzam Ewing | 13 years ago | Reply Oh how lucky I was to be born a Pakistani.

Fawad | 13 years ago | Reply Dont be an extremist yourself by saying things like “drone all these lawyers” and “Pakistan needs a Tianenmen square massacre”… Just look at your extreme views people. You are no different from Qadri. He is religious extremist and you are trying to be Liberal extremist. and yes “Liberal extremism” is a phenomena a very tiny minority of Pakistan is suffering from and in a way firing up religious extremism as well. @JZ : Who are you to decide if Asia bibi is a poor innocent Christian?? Are you the court? NO you are NOT. We have a judiciary system in place and they after a year long hearing found her guilty. DON’T try to take law in your hand and if you do then do not blame Qadri for doing that as well. You both are indifferent. @Sikandar: Your comments “for some personal reason some one bifurcated a great nation and here we are suffering” are very childish. No individual could bifurcate India for personal reasons. It took a long movement, support of millions, lot of sacrifices and then we EARNED our country Pakistan. There were people with your thinking at that time too who thought that a combined India would be better. They were never forced to migrate to Pakistan nor you are bound to live here if you are so much against identity of this country. and by the way, India was never ever a single country before British rule. Both religious extremism and liberal extremism is a plague for our country

Mubarak | 13 years ago | Reply Peda huwe Vakil to Shatan ne kaha Lo Aaj hum be sahibe oulad ho gae All these so called lawyers should hang their heads in shame for this cruel behaviour by supporting a murderer.

real law student- | 13 years ago | Reply What i would really like to see is all these monkeys cheering the murderer and chanting that they are willing to lay down their lives for fictional honours be given an opportunity to do so. Pakistan needs a Tianenmen square massacre but here it is the so called religious men who are so far up their own orifices that reason escapes them- that need running over by tanks.

maitre | 13 years ago | Reply @IZ These three hundred lawyers know more law than any of you and me. They are defending their Prophet's (SAW) honour besides their faith revival. We respect every God revealed religion but at the same time we honour 'Allah's Last Sent Messeneger (PBUH). We do not settle for less punishment than capital punishment. Why no dody raise voice for Dr. Aafia Siddique, is she not innocent whom the judge claimed: 'we have destroyed her career". Does that mode of justice sound fair?

tahir islam | 13 years ago | Reply This is an irony of our nation. Lawyer appearance outside the court room raising slogans in favour of the accused (Qadri) was shamefull and I was stunned to see all that. I must remind those lawers that they are the officers of court and the are highly required to show respect to all laws and 'THE RULE Of LAW' ... There is no evidence which shows that late Governor had said something against the prophet or 'Namoos e Rasalat'. Even if he had said, in law abiding socities it is the duty of courts to prosecute and penalised someone. A common citizen or a security guard (in this case) has no authority to make his own judgement and kill some body. these things are just leading towards a 'law of jungle' where every body do justice as he likes. If my country lawyers believe in this lawless system and feel sympathetic for such a person then I can feel sory for my country and its inhabitants. God knows what system will be prevailing in Pakistan tomorrow.

sikandar | 13 years ago | Reply I pity the Name Pakistan, for some personal reason some one bifurcated a great nation and here we are suffering. I do not know where we are going to end. May Allah save this country.

Tanzeel | 13 years ago | Reply Invite those lawyers for a discussion on case somewhere and drone that place.

Khanje | 13 years ago | Reply Quran ki aik ayet ka khulasa kuch yun ha: Allah he Kafi ha apny Nabi (S.A.W.W) ka badla leny k liay Now carefully look the date and time of death of (Taseer) Date 4111 (Allah) Time 4 hrs 1 second 11 minutes 4111 (Allah) salman taseer said in his last programe point blank on Dunia tv 1111

shahzad hussain | 13 years ago | Reply The Prophet Muhammad PBUH believed in the rule of law and these lawyers and the suspect Mr Qadri need to read Islamic history and the way The Prophet Muhammad PBUH conducted matters of state and his views about the judicial system. My information on this murder and the conduct of some lawyers,who are suppossed to be officers of the court helping the judge in forming his judgement, and the statements of some of the so called ulema is merely what is available through the press both print and electronic.In my view Salman Taseer's conduct was more in line with the tradition of our beloved Prophet PBUH than the conduct of Mr. Qadri and the so-called enlightened lawyers, or for that matter of the aforesaid ulema who condone the murder of a person who has repeatedly said on record that he is a Muslim and therefore has said the Kalima and believes in it. Islamic history from the period of The Prophet PBUH to modern times needs to be read in order to carefully determine who are the obscurantists and who follow the principles of our beloved Prophet in substance and not only in form. I hope and pray this case is judicially adjudicated in the the true traditions of our Prophet PBUH without any politics and in the true traditions of Islam by the Judicial officers and judges so entrusted to do so with wisdom and courage in the highest traditions of our faith and the example of our beloved Prophet PBUH

IZ | 13 years ago | Reply 300 lawyers ready to defend a murderer whose murder they glorify and not one ready to defend an innocent poor Christian woman. Hypocrisy, thy name is Pakistan.

Loyalist | 13 years ago | Reply Morality of this nation has gone deep into the ground. Living in a law of jungle where people feel delighted over a dead body reflects that we as a muslim state have created slam which prevailed at the time of prophet Muhammad (PBUH) birth. This nation by all means has nothing to do with islam teaching which teaches us tollerance and nations which are confused with no direction are bound to be doomed.

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