Pak invokes Maintenance of Public Order to keep Daniel Pearl's killers in jail

Pakistan's Sindh province government on Friday invoked the Maintenance of Public Order to keep in jail British-born al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh after a court overturned his death sentence in the abduction and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002. On Thursday, a two-judge Sindh High Court bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha found 46-year-old Sheikh guilty of the lesser charge of kidnapping and commuted his death sentence to seven years in prison. He has been in jail for the past 18 years.

The court also acquitted his three aides - Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib, and Sheikh Adil- serving life sentences in the case. The bench announced the verdict on the appeals filed by the four convicts 18 years ago. The Sindh government acted swiftly to invoke the MPO which allows it to keep the four convicts behind bars for three months.

According to a notification issued by the Sindh Home Ministry, the release of Sheikh and his three associates could jeopardize the law and order situation in the province, thus necessitating their continued detention. Talking to Geo News, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he was surprised at the timing of the verdict.

He said the order shall be challenged at a higher forum. Under the Sindh High Court order, Sheikh is eligible to walk free as he has already served 18 years in prison on the death row.

The US on Friday criticized the Pakistani court for overturning the death sentence of the al-Qaeda leader, terming the verdict an "affront" to the victims of terrorism everywhere. "The overturning of the convictions for Daniel Pearl's murder is an affront to victims of terrorism everywhere," Alice Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said in a tweet.

But the US' top diplomat for South Asia welcomed Pakistani prosecutors' indications that they would appeal the decision. "We welcome Pakistan's decision to appeal the verdict. Those responsible for Daniel's heinous kidnapping and murder must face the full measure of justice," Wells said.

Pakistan's Ministry of Interior in a statement said that the government was well aware of the facts of the judgment in the case. "Federal Government is concerned about the decision, however, as per Constitutional scheme of things, prosecution in criminal matters is a provincial subject, therefore similar concern has been shared with the Government of Sindh," it said.

It further said that the government of Sindh decided to file an appeal next week against the judgment in the Supreme Court. "The government of Pakistan has asked the Sindh government to dedicate its best resources in the pursuance of appeal before the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan," it said, adding that the provincial government was advised to consult Attorney General for Pakistan in the matter. Ministry of Interior also said that all the accused in the case were arrested and detained under Section 3 (1) of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960 for a period of 3 months pending filing of the appeal in the apex court.

It also reiterated commitment to follow due process under the laws of the country to bring terrorists to task. Pearl, the 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, was abducted and beheaded while he was in Pakistan investigating a story on the alleged links between the country's powerful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.

Sheikh, who was the mastermind behind abduction and killing of Pearl, was arrested from Lahore in February 2002 and sentenced to death five months later by an anti-terrorism court. The incident came three years after Sheikh, along with Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, was released by India in 1999 and given safe passage to Afghanistan in exchange for the nearly 150 passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814. He was serving prison term in India for kidnappings of Western tourists in the country.