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Pakistan's leading religious affairs advisory body, the Islamic Ideology Council, has declared the recent sentencing of a serial killer as un-Islamic.
The council says the Lahore court's decision to sentence Javed Iqbal to death by mutiliation is not allowed in Islam.
The sentence given by the Lahore court judge in the serial killer case sent shock waves around the world.
 Sentence could create wrong impression about Islamic law
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He ordered Mr Iqbal, and one of the accomplices, to be executed by strangulation in public at Lahore's national monument, Minar-e-Pakistan.
He then ordered the bodies to be cut into 100 pieces, and dissolved in vats of acid.
Many people across the country were shocked by the verdict, and the Interior Minister acted swiftly to counter criticism by announcing the sentence would not be implemented in the manner as the judge had ordered.
Against Islam
Although Javed Iqbal has now appealed against the verdict in the High Court, the country's top advisory body on religion, the Islamic Ideology Council, has said the sentence is against the teachings of Islam.
The council has said the sentence against Javed Iqbal could create an impression inside and outside Pakistan that it has been passed in keeping with Islamic injunctions, and potentially giving rise to misunderstandings about Shariah law.
It said there were categorical commandments in Islam to maintain the dignity of dead bodies, including those of non-Muslims.
The council says the cutting of bodies into pieces is strictly forbidden and quotes the Prophet Muhammed prohibiting Muslims from undertaking this practice.
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