Two years have passed since a religious extremist, Mumtaz Qadri, pumped 20 bullets into Salman Taseer, the then governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, killing him on the spot. The murder trial has been dragging on for the last two years in courts even as the whole world watched the murderer being garlanded by the very protectors of the law — the lawyers of Islamabad. The court office where the culprit was produced was ransacked by furious crowd. The judge who sentenced Qadri had to flee the country along with his family to save his life. Mumtaz was scheduled to be hanged on Oct. 9, 2012, however some powerful quarters in the country are ensuring this sentence is not carried out. Eight months after Taseer’s murder, one of his sons, Shahbaz Taseer, was kidnapped in broad daylight from a posh locality in Lahore. There are unconfirmed news reports that Shahbaz was kidnapped by Taleban who want to swap him for Qadri. Taleban's love for Qadri tells the whole story. One may wonder who is the main culprit: Mumtaz Qadri or the lawyers who garlanded him?
Masood Khan
Jubail
Garlanding the murderer
