A SHOPKEEPER from Port Glasgow has been convicted of murdering his wife and handed a life sentence.

Abdul Sattar killed spouse Mumtaz in Pakistan just over four years ago but her family have faced an agonising wait for justice.

It has finally come to an end after Sattar — a Pakistani-born British citizen who formerly lived in Auchenbothie Road, ran a newsagents at Cromdale Road, and whose two daughters were former pupils at Slaemuir Primary — was convicted along with his three co-accused of doping Mumtaz, 38, to render her unconscious before robbing and murdering her.

Sattar and his three co-accused will serve life imprisonment with a 700,000 rupees fine.

He was also sentenced to seven years custody with hard labour for doping his wife — to run consecutive to the remaining sentence — and seven years, hard labour and a 300,000 rupees fine over the robbery, again to run consecutive to the remaining sentence.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar today issued a statement on behalf of the family of Mumtaz.

It said: “Mumtaz Sattar’s family have struggled long and hard for justice following her murder in September 2013.

“This was a coldly calculated and evil murder perpetrated by Abdul Sattar and three other men.

“The sole motive appears to have been his greed for money and wish to remarry.

“He took her to Pakistan with a plan hatched to murder her within hours of their arrival.

“He hoped by burying her within 12 hours and a wildly concocted story he would cover his tracks and escape to the UK.”

The statement added that Sattar had regularly subjected Mumtaz to beatings and emotional abuse while married to her.

The couple’s two young daughters, now 14 and 17, reside with their maternal grandmother in Glasgow.

Sattar had claimed the couple were drugged, attacked and thrown out of a taxi they’d shared with a stranger shortly after arriving in Lahore while on their way to see his parents in Punjab.

He stated that the driver stopped to get him and Mumtaz a cup of tea and after drinking it that she’d lost consciousness, followed by himself, and that they were both thrown from a moving car.

He told police that on regaining consciousness he found his wife to be dying, flagged down passers-by and managed to phone the UK and get his wife to hospital.

On arrival at hospital Mumtaz was found to be dead and Mr Sattar refused to have his injuries photographed by police officers, asking them ‘not to take his picture as he could marry again while going back to Scotland and if his picture is published in the newspaper it will be a problem’.

He then insisted on having his wife buried within hours of her murder in his home town at Shahkot but at the funeral a suspicious family member took photographs of ‘suspicious scratches’ on the killer’s neck.

Mr Anwar said: “It has taken over four years and three sets of lawyers to get justice and in that period individuals in the Punjab legal system stood accused of corruption and taking bribes, whilst Mumtaz’s family were subjected to threats of violence if they did not withdraw the case.

“The family persevered and refused to give in, showing immense courage, but fundamentally they did so because of their love for Mumtaz.

“Mumtaz’s family believe that she will now be in peace and that they can finally grieve for her loss as they have justice.”