Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan Monday has ordered to halt the release of prime suspect Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three co-conspirators in Daniel Pearl murder case. It had, on January 28, ordered the immediate release of Sheikh and his accomplices.

The decision came after the Sindh government filed a review petition against the acquittals and the federal government announced to formally join the proceedings of the case. A spokesperson of the Attorney General Office on Saturday shared that the federal government will be filing an application before the Supreme Court (SC) to be allowed to join as a party in the proceedings.

The federal government will further seek to review the apex court's Jan 28 judgment, he said, and added that the federal government will file an application for the constitution of a larger bench to hear the review appeal, the spokesperson shared.

The federal government had decided to join the review appeal a day after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi held a telephonic conversation with the newly appointed US State of the Secretary Antony J. Blinken. During the conversation, Blinken expressed concerns of his government over Sheikh's acquittal.

Blinken, in a statement, said that the US was ready to extradite and prosecute Sheikh in the US.

A three-member bench of the SC headed by Justice Mushir Alam had ordered the immediate release of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three others while hearing a review appeal on Jan 28. In a majority ruling of 2-1, upheld the decision of the Sindh high court and dismissed the appeals. The court in its decision said that the provincial government’s detention orders were illegal and that neither the provincial nor the federal government had to cause to keep Sheikh in custody.

However, Sheikh, who is in the custody of the Sindh government, was not released.

Daniel Pearl was Wall Street Journal reporter and South Asia bureau chief Daniel Pearl killed by Al-Qaeda linked terrorists on February 1, 2002.