Drawing parallels with Shahbaz Bhatti’s case

While Shahbaz Bhatti may have criticised the blasphemy law, it has yet to be proven that he was killed for that.

RAWALPINDI: This is with reference to your report of October 2 on the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri. The reporter also mentioned in the article that the federal minorities’ minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was killed because of his criticism of the blasphemy law. While he may have publicly criticised the said law, it has yet to be proven that he was killed because of that. This is because the case so far has not gone to court and if anything, reports of the ongoing investigation suggested that the minister may have lost his life because of any entirely unrelated reason.

Air commodore (retd) Khalid Iqbal

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2011.