Islamabad, Oct 7 : Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the self-confessed assassin of former Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, has filed an appeal against the death penalty awarded to him by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan.

Qadri, one of Taseer''s own elite security force protectors, had shot the then Punjab Governor dead on January 4 because of his vocal opposition to the blasphemy law that was recently used to sentence a Pakistani-Christian woman, Asia Bibi, to death.

An ATC in Rawalpindi had sentenced Qadri to death on October 1, saying that it was a heinous crime and there was no justification to it.

Qadri’s lawyer, Raja Suhja Rehman, filed his client’s appeal against the death penalty verdict in the Islamabad High Court, The Express Tribune reports.

The appeal had 11 points, in which the lawyer maintained that ATC was not the competent authority to sentence him, so the decision was illegal.

“This decision is illegal and baseless… the way the judge of the ATC announced the decision without listening to our point of view is absolutely against the law,” Qadri’s lawyer was quoted as saying.

IHC Chief Justice Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman adjourned the case for argument on October 11, and the Divisional Bench (DB) of the IHC will hear the case. (ANI)