Lahore, Pakistan - Muhammad Sarwar, the killer of Pakistani Punjab's woman minister Zil-e-Huma, believes that women cannot rule over men.
“I have no regrets. I killed her out of the conviction that she was leading an un-Islamic life and spreading an evil influence on other women,” Sarwar told interrogators in custody, according to a police source.
Sarwar belongs to Ahle Hadith, a local religious vigilante group, and had allegedly killed four prostitutes in 2002, but was acquitted for want of evidence.
He shot the young woman minister at her meet-the-public function, posing as a visitor last Monday. Sarwar was irked by her increasing popularity, sources in the Punjab Police told Daily Times Thursday.
Police said that Sarwar has "his own interpretation of Islam". Sarwar told interrogators that he was fired by a passion to purge society of women who defy Islamic customs.
Sarwar owns a hardware shop in Gujranwala and has nine children - four sons and five daughters. He had ordered his wife and daughters to stay at home and veil their faces.
Slain minister Zil-e-Huma belonged to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid), was related to Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi and was a vocal supporter of President Pervez Musharraf's liberalization drive.
Opposition to women seeking political office has been a recurring theme in Pakistan society. Sections of Islamic clergy had issued edicts against Benazir Bhutto when she became country's prime minister in 1988.