LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday suspended death warrant of a ‘mentally ill’ condemned prisoner staying his execution set for Tuesday (today) at Kot Lakhpat central jail.

The bench passed the order on a plea filed by the convict’s mother and sought a reply from the Punjab home department.

Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), a law firm working for prisoners’ rights, represented the petition of convict’s mother Iqbal Bano.

Advocate Maryam Haq argued before the bench that the jail authorities in 2008 diagnosed that 41-year-old Khizar Hayat had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He was a police constable and arrested for killing a fellow cop. Shadbagh police had arrested him in October 2001 and the trial court awarded him death sentence in 2003.

She said national and international laws did not allow hanging of any insane person. She asked the court to set aside death warrant issued by a sessions court and stop the execution.

After hearing the arguments, the bench suspended the death warrant and stayed the execution of Hayat. The bench directed the home department to submit a detailed report about the matter on June 18.

DISMISSED: A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday dismissed a petition for staying execution of a man convicted of killing his two minor daughters.

Convict Mukhtar had killed his daughters in 2004 and was sentenced to death by the trial court in 2007. Lytton Road police had registered a case on the complaint of Chanda Bibi, mother of the minors.

Brother of the convict told the bench that negotiations between the convict and the complainant were in progress, therefore, the hanging should be stopped. However, the bench expressed dissatisfaction over the documents presented by the petitioner about the agreement between the parties.

The bench dismissed the petition and upheld the execution.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2015

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