July 03, 2006	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 6, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, July 2: A widow has requested the president of Pakistan to pardon her son, whose execution is fixed for Tuesday, because he was minor when he committed the offence.

Her son Wazirzada was sentenced to death for murdering his cousin Nijatullah on Sep 16, 1996 in the jurisdiction of Umerzai police station in Charssada district. The motive behind the murder was an old feud during which the father of Wazirzada had been killed by his cousins. The feud had started over possession of a piece of land.

Najamul Huda, widow of Noor Aziz, claimed that the occurrence had taken place, and at that time the age of her son Wazirzada was less than 18.

She told journalists here on Sunday that being illiterate, she was not aware of legal technicalities. She added that her other son had been charged in another case and was absconding due to which there was nobody to look after the case of her convicted son.

At no stage of the trial or appeal the convict had adopted the stance that he was a juvenile offender. Moreover, at that time the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000 was not in force.

She showed the school-leaving certificate of Wazirzada, issued by the Government Primary School Haji Saifoor Mian Kalay, according to which he was born on Oct 10, 1978.

When asked the plea of her son’s age was an after-thought as the issue was never raised at any legal forum, the woman said she was illiterate and was not aware of legal system.

An official of the Peshawar central prison, where the convict has been lodged, said that the prisoner was frail and nothing could be said about his age without a sold proof.

The execution of the prisoner has so far been stayed twice.