KARACHI: Foreign diplomats of five European countries called on Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Monday and urged him to stop the execution of death row prisoner Shafqat Hussain.

A delegation comprising the diplomats of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Switzerland drew the attention of the CM towards the case of Shafqat Hussain and urged him not to treat his case like any other terrorism case.

Also read: Shafqat Hussain hanging postponed for fourth time

The CM told the delegation that according to the Constitution only the federal government was empowered to stop the execution of a condemned prisoner. “The execution is due tomorrow morning and the time is very short to take up your concerns with the prime minister,” the CM told the diplomats.

The delegation requested the CM to take up their request with the PM on an urgent basis. “We would appreciate your efforts which are bound to create goodwill for the Sindh government,” they said.

The CM assured the delegation that he would write a letter to the prime minister.

The diplomats praised the then federal government of the Pakistan Peoples Party for not implementing the death penalty during its entire tenure.

They also thanked the CM for his cooperation.

Consul General of France Francois Dall’Orso, Consul General of Germany Dr Tilo Klinner, British Deputy High Commissioner John Tucknott, acting Consul General of Italy Giulio Lazeolla and Consul General of Switzerland Emil Wyss were part of the delegation.

Hanging scheduled for today

Condemned prisoner Shafqat Hussain, whose age has been a topic of controversy, is set to be hanged at the Karachi central prison in the early hours of Tuesday (today).

He was sentenced to death by an antiterrorism court in September 2004 after he was found guilty of killing a seven-year-old boy after abducting him for ransom in April 2004 in New Town.

The Sindh High Court had upheld the death sentence in the crime of kidnapping for ransom and set aside the conviction in the premeditated murder by converting it into manslaughter. The Supreme Court also dismissed his appeal in October 2007, while his review petition was also turned down by the apex court in December 2007. The president rejected his mercy petition in July 2012.

On June 1, the trial court issued a black warrant for the execution of the death row prisoner, who hails from Azad Kashmir, and asked the jail superintendent to hang him till death on June 9 at 4.30am under the supervision of a judicial magistrate after completing required formalities as per the jail manual.

A jail official said that the last meeting between the death row convict and his brother and other relatives was arranged.

All other arrangements had also been finalised for hanging as per schedule and a sessions court had already appointed a judicial magistrate to supervise the execution, he added.

The condemned prisoner has been dodging death since 2012 as implementation of black warrants, which have repeatedly been issued by the trial court, were stayed because the Pakistan Peoples Party government had placed a moratorium on execution after coming into power in 2008.

The PML-N government lifted the moratorium in December last year. However, he escaped execution on a number of occasions due to the issue of his alleged juvenility.

Certain non-governmental organisations and the media raised their voice against his scheduled hanging on the ground that he was allegedly an underage person —14 years old — at the time of the commissioning of the offence.

The Federal Investigation Agency was assigned to investigate the matter and a three-member inquiry team found that the condemned prisoner was around 23 years old in 2004 i.e. the time of the offence.

The prosecution said that Hussain was a watchman of Nadeem Arcade and he kidnapped Umair, the son of a car dealer, when the latter came downstairs from his second-floor apartment. The accused took the boy to his room and hit him in the head with a club when the boy insisted on leaving. The boy died instantly and Hussain dumped the body in a nearby drain, it added.

He made ransom calls from different public call offices but he never turned up to collect the ransom amount, the prosecution said, adding that, finally, he asked the victim’s father to place the money under a wooden box lying inside the compound of the Nadeem Arcade. The move led to his arrest as the police said the box belonged to the watchman, the prosecution concluded.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play