LAHORE - Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan supports death sentence to blasphemers and says those levelling baseless blasphemy allegations against anyone should also be awarded capital punishment. Answering a question at a news conference at the Punjab Assembly cafeteria on Thursday, he said an unfounded accusation of blasphemy also amounted to committing the same offence and such people should be awarded death sentence. The minister said under the constitution, the president did not have the discretionary power to pardon Aasia Masih, convicted for blasphemy, unless the prime minister advised him to do so. He said the prime minister had said in a statement that he had not given any advice to the president to pardon the woman, being kept at Sheikhupura prison like an ordinary prisoner. He said Governor Salman Taseer had visited the Sheikhupura prison in a bid to start a new controversy about the blasphemy convict. However, he said, the governor had miserably failed in his designs. He said the governor had also failed in making an issue the plot to kill the Lahore High Court chief justice. Rana Sana said religious leaders were cursing the governor for his reckless remarks on the Blasphemy Law. Some of them, he said, had also ruled the governor beyond the pale of Islam. The minister said a man who had nothing to do with Islam could not be ruled out of it, a more serious attack on the constitutional head of the province. Rana Sana said under the law, Aasia Mashih had the right to challenge her conviction before the Lahore High Court and then the Supreme Court. About WikiLeaks disclosures, he said they were just observations of the US diplomats and high-level officials that might or might not be correct. He said it would be wrong to take them as irrefutable facts or hold anyone accountable on the basis of what had been written about them in the leaked cables. The minister strongly opposed the move to impose Reformed General Sales Tax in the prevailing situation when the people were already facing many problems. He denied the Punjab chief minister had supported the RGST at a recent meeting of the Council of Common Interests. As for the PML-Qs point of view on the subject, he said the party had deviated from its earlier stand. He alleged the PML-Q leadership was hand in glove with the PPP. He said Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Governor Salman Taseer were in contact with each other and they had tried to have Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif disqualified at the time of governors rule in Punjab. The minister was critical of the way the PPP celebrated its 44th founding day. The PPP leaders and activists just danced and did nothing that could help the late leadership in the Hereafter. Answering a question, he said, the government was willing to sit with religious leaders wanting to hold any kind of congregation.