[DAWN] The lawyers who thronged the court in support of Mumtaz Qadri, the killer of Salman Taseer, do so in hope of a 'heavenly reward' as they believe defending the convict is part of their 'religious obligations.'They were there on a chilly Tuesday morning, in all shapes and sizes and ages ‐ thin, plump; old, middle aged and young; dressed in crumpled gowns and with straggly beards or clean shaven, clad in smart winter coats.
There were so many of them that the small room at the Islamabad High Court could not accommodate them all and many had to be content to wait outside in the cold. Those inside were hardly more comfortable as they were pushed and shoved as they stood balancing themselves against the wall, in a room that grew warm and humid while it drizzled outside.
Also read: Qadri's appeal: IHC re-issues notice to Salman Taseer's legal heirs
Among those who attended the hearing of an appeal filed by Qadri against his conviction by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) were member Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
Bar Council Sajjad Akbar Abbasi, former presidents Lahore High Court (LHC) bar association, Rawalpindi, Taufiq Asif, and Ahsanuddin Sheikh, and former president Islamabad bar association Naseer Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
All of them were there to assist the lead counsel for Qadri - former chief justice of LHC Khawaja Mohammad Sharif and retired Justice Mian Nazir Ahmed, who have come out of retirement to defend Qadri.
As a lawyer present there commented: "These two 'defence' lawyers are senior to the judges hearing this case."
But it appeared that most of those present were doing their 'religious duty'.
When Dawn asked a lawyer why he had associated himself with the case, Mohammad Waqas Malik replied: "Ghazi Ilam Din, who killed a 'blasphemer', was represented by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah."
When another lawyer reminded him that Ghazi Ilam Din was convicted and hanged, Malik shrugged and said: "It was during the government of non-believers and the judge who convicted Ilam Din was also a non-Moslem."