NEW YORK: An immigrant from Punjab who started his life here as gas station attendant and went on to become a millionaire was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for contract killing of two Indians while he built his crooked gas station empire. Federal prosecutors had demanded death penalty for 36-year-old Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, saying he showed no mercy for his victims and deserves no mercy. The men, they said, were slain after they threatened to expose crimes he committed including rigging pumps to cheat customers. But the Brooklyn federal jury, which had earlier convicted him for the murders, rejected their demand after hour-long deliberations and instead awarded him life imprisonment without parole, contending that the hit men he hired were equally culpable.

ISLAMABAD: The Nawaz Sharif government appears set to revive the controversial military tribunals, declared illegal by the supreme court earlier, with a senior member of the ruling PakistanMuslim League (PML) calling for a joint session of the parliament on the issue. Zafar Ali Shah, a senior member of Sharif's PML and parliamentary secretary for law and parliamentary affairs, in a clear indication of government's mood told mediapersons on Tuesday evening that a joint session of the parliament should be summoned to consider the presidential ordinance which had been struck down by the apex court. Shah said there was a provision within the constitution by which a joint session of parliament could be summoned to consider the ordinance on setting up of the military tribunals, thus hinting at another clash between the government and the judiciary. ``It is the duty of the parliament to intervene in the state of conflict between the executive and the judiciary on this vital issue,'' he said. Human rights bodies in Pakistan have slammed the government on the issue.