Islamabad: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed a plea seeking establishment of a judicial commission to determine the age of the death row convict Shafqat Hussain and lift the stay order against his execution.
Justice Athar Minnallah announced the verdict, which the court had reserved three days back. The IHC last week granted a stay order against the execution of Shafqat just a day before he was scheduled to be hanged, on the appeal of his counsel who claimed that the inquiry conducted by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to determine Hussain’s age was ‘illegal’.
The counsel for convict Tariq Hasan in last hearing argued that the age of his client was 15 year at the time of crime due to which he should not be executed. The IHC last week had directed the government to explain the legal status of the inquiry conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to determine the age of the murder convict.
The FIA investigation had confirmed that even in the jail records, Shafqat Hussain’s age was not 15 years at the time he was arrested, nor was he under the age of 18. During last hearing, the IHC has reserved its decision regarding the implementation of convict’s death sentence after completion of arguments by his counsel.
Now the IHC has dismissed Shafqat’s plea for a judicial inquiry into his age, and has lifted the stay order, paving way for the execution of the death row convict. Hussain was arrested and sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in 2004 for the kidnapping and murder of a seven-year-old boy in 2001 from an apartment building in Karachi where he was working as a guard. His execution has been delayed three times as confusion over whether he was a juvenile when convicted or not.
