An anti-terrorism court in Pakistani has sentenced nine members of the MQM to death for the murder of a former governor of Sindh province.

There was tight security in the court in Karachi as the judge announced the sentences.

The nine men have a week to appeal to the Sindh high court.

The former Sindh governor, Hakeem Mukhammed Saeed, who was also a respected scholar, was shot down in Karachi last October; his killing prompted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to impose direct federal rule on the province. The anti-terrorist court announced that warrants had also been issued for the arrest of twenty seven other MQM members, including the party leader, Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London.