The death sentence handed down to owner of The Frontier...

The death sentence handed down to owner of The Frontier Post newspaper Rehmat Shah Afridi aroused only a muted reaction in the Pakistani press.
Major newspaper bodies, including the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), made up of the owners of print media publications made no official statement. They had defended Afridi at the time of his arrest in 1999. The same is true of the CPNE (Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors). The harshness of the sentence has however surprised many.
"Well, this is of course absolutely correct under law, but the fact is that no one was really expecting a death sentence in this case, especially since it involves the possession of 'charas' a comparatively 'mild' drug in the view of many. It is not quite like heroin," said Ahmed Azhar, a lawyer who had contributed to The Frontier Post.
Afridi has a fairly firm following from some journalists who have worked for his papers. His death sentence raised conjecture that the blasphemous letter published in The Frontier Post [slandering Mohammed and angering Muslims] earlier this year may have been planted. "There has been much conjecture about how such an item could get into print, but if there are people who have an enmity with Afridi, it could have been planted," said Shahid Khan, a Peshawar-based journalist.