Islamabad, Aug 15: Salman Taseer, the slain governor of Pakistan's Punjab province, has been posthumously conferred with one of the country's highest civilian honours, months after he was gunned down by an extremist police guard for favouring amendment to the controversial blasphemy law.
 President Asif Ali Zardari awarded the Nishan-e-Imtiaz to Taseer for his services to the country as part of honours announced on the occasion of Pakistan's Independence Day yesterday.
 Taseer served as governor of Punjab from May 2008 to January this year.
 Taseer was assassinated in Islamabad on January 4 by police guard Malik Mumtaz Qadri, who was angered by the Governor's call to amend the controversial blasphemy law.
 Zardari also conferred the Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Interior Minister Rehman Malik for his services to the country.
 In a separate development, the ruling Pakistan People's Party has  demanded that Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry should take suo motu notice of Taseer's murder in line with the action he had taken to pursue the case of teenager Sarfaraz Shah, who was shot and killed by a paramilitary trooper in Karachi.
 PPP spokesman Fakharuddin Chaudhry told the media that the Chief Justice had directed the lower judiciary to decide Shah's case without any delay in view of the seriousness of the matter.
On the other hand, Taseer's case was pending in court despite the  passage of over six months, he said.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST