ISLAMABAD, June 20: A lawmaker of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) raised many eyebrows in the National Assembly on Thursday by demanding an “honourable” release of the convicted murderer of then Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

But the PTI took some time to disown the outburst made by Mujahid Ali Khan, its member from the Mardan district, while taking part in the budget debate after a PPP member from Sindh, Nafisa Shah, protested against it.

“Mumtaz Qadri should be released honourably,” Mr Khan said out of the blue about Mr Taseer’s guard who was sentenced to death in 2011 for shooting Mr Taseer to death in Islamabad on Jan 4 the same year in an obvious retaliation against the governor’s statements against the perceived misuse of the controversial blasphemy law.

An appeal against the conviction is pending before the Lahore High Court.

Ms Shah, rising on a point of order, condemned the PTI member’s demand and called for the convict’s punishment.

She also regretted that some lawyers had garlanded Qadri during a hearing and recalled the assassination of the then minorities affairs minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, in Islamabad by unidentified gunmen who are yet to be traced.

Arif Alvi, a PTI member from Karachi, told the house, probably after consulting other party members, that what his colleague had said was the “view of an individual” and not a policy of the party, which he said would be guided by the country’s constitution.—Raja Asghar