LAHORE, Aug 30: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday suspended till Sept 5 the execution of the petitioner and dispensed with the black warrants the home department had issued to the district jail, Gujrat, for his hanging.

Mohammad Ashraf was to be hanged on Thursday after the LHC and the Supreme Court had dismissed his appeals against the capital punishment awarded by a district and sessions court in Gujrat. The president had also rejected his mercy petition.

He moved the LHC in a writ petition stating that his death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment because his family had reached a partial compromise with the family of the deceased.

The LHC bench served a notice on the advocate-general to assist the court on the question if a convict could be executed after a partial compromise with the family of the deceased had reached.

The question was raised by Advocate Sohail Ahmad Dar who, citing from a Supreme Court judgment, submitted that a convict could not be awarded death penalty after a partial compromise. He stated the superior court had the jurisdiction of converting death sentence into life imprisonment if the convict could produce a material evidence that he or she had reached a partial compromise with the family of the deceased.

The counsel submitted that the parents, brothers and sisters of the deceased had forgiven Ashraf, and efforts were now in progress to reach a similar compromise with the widow and her children who had not, so far, forgiven the petitioner.