Hundreds of common Pakistanis were gathered outside...

Hundreds of common Pakistanis were gathered outside the court when the judgment against Omar Sheikh and the three other accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case was announced.
A majority of them said they had expecting the death verdict for Sheikh. They believed the verdict has been delivered under US and Pakistan government pressure. However, there were no protests and they dispersed peacefully.
Baker Mohammed As-lam said the verdict did not surprise him. "The US is armtwisting Pakistan into taking action against hardline Muslims. Whenever the government hesitates, the US either warns that Pakistan would be declared a terrorist country or asks India to increase pressure on the borders."
Chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi denied the defence argument that the government had influenced the verdict.
Chief defense lawyer Rai Bashir said, "Had it been a case of murder of a Pakistani, the court would have freed the accused. Since it involves the murder of a US citizen, the court has been coerced and pressurized by the government to deliver this verdict."
He said the prosecution had failed to establish its case.
"There was no substantial evidence to prove that my clients kidnapped and murdered the US journalist. I call upon international jurists to protest...press the Pakistani government for a retrial."
He said that the government shifted the case venue from Karachi to Hyderabad to find "a judge who could not resist government pressure. When President General Pervez Musharraf is on record having said he wanted Omar Sheikh to be sentenced to death, how could the judge defy him?"