JournalismPakistan.com
April 02, 2020

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has expressed concern over the commuting of death sentence of one of the key accused in the murder of Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl by the Sindh High Court.                                         

A joint statement issued by PFUJ President Shahzada Zulfiqar and Secretary-General Nasir Zaidi pointed to the timing of this decision. It comes after 18 years when coronavirus grips the world, they said.

"Announcing the decision at such a critical time will bring a bad name for Pakistan, which is currently struggling on many fronts, including the virus."

They said that the country's prosecution system needs revisiting so that murderers could be brought to justice strictly as per the law of the land.

The union leaders said the prosecution had failed to establish the murder charges against the accused while leaving many loopholes in the case that will have many complications.

They called for a review of the decision and asked the government to immediately file an appeal against the high court decision in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.