The key word is “impunity”. Four years after the murder of Shahbhaz Bhatti, the Catholic minorities minister who was killed by terrorists on 2 March 2011, instigators and executioners remain unpunished. The case has caused an even greater stir after today’s announcement by Islamabad’s court of appeal confirming the death sentence of Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed murderer of Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer. Gunned down two months before Bhatti’s murder, Taseer had been accused of “treachery” and “blasphemy” for his defence – alongside the Catholic minister – of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy after being falsely accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

 Although Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif abolished the moratorium on the death penalty in light of the latest terrorist attacks, it remains unclear whether the sentence will actually be carried out and whether Qadri will be executed. However, in another case that unfolded practically alongside this one, an acquittal seems to be on the horizon for murderer of Shabhaz Bhatti.

Read the article “Killers of Christian Cabinet Member in Pakistan Still Unpunished” on vaticaninsider.lastampa.it.