LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday dismissed a petition of Amin Ansari, father of Zainab, for public hanging of Imran Ali, whose execution was scheduled in the early hours of Wednesday on charges of kidnap-cum-rape-cum-murder of the seven-year-old girl.

A division bench, comprising Justice Sardar Mohammad Shamim Khan and Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi, observed that deciding the mode and place of execution of any sentence was the domain of the government and the court had nothing to do with it.

In response to a query, the counsel for the petitioner Ishtiaq Chaudhry informed the bench that an application had also been filed with the government on June 20 for public hanging of the convict, but the government had not taken any decision so far.

A provincial law officer told the bench that death warrants of the convict had already been issued for Oct 17 (today). He said the jail manual did not allow public hangings while arguing that the government had no time to make arrangements for the execution at a public place. He also quoted from a Supreme Court judgement and said public hangings had been stopped in 1994.

The counsel for the petitioner, however, insisted that the hanging could be showed live on television if not possible outside the jail. The law officer argued that the jail manual carried no such provision.

The bench observed that since the question in hand pertained to discretion of the government, the court could not issue any directive. With this observation, the bench dismissed the petition.

The petitioner had contended that Section 22 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 empowered the government to hang a convict publicly. He complained that the government was not complying with the law available on the subject. He requested the court to order the government to ensure that the convict was hanged publicly to satisfy the requirement of deterrence in society.

Previously, the high court on a similar petition by Mr Amin had referred the matter to the government.

Late Tuesday evening, jail authorities arranged last meeting of some 57 relatives with the death row prisoner. His execution was scheduled at 5.30am on Wednesday at Kot Lakhpat Jail, said the inspector general of prisons while talking to Dawn.

On Oct 12, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) issued death warrants for Imran’s execution on Oct 17 in Kot Lakhpat jail. The court directed the jail superintendent to execute the warrants and submit a compliance report.

Earlier on Feb 17, the ATC had awarded death sentence to Imran Ali, 24, on four counts following a four-day jail trial. The death penalty was awarded under Sections 364-A (kidnapping a person under the age of 14), 376 of PPC (rape) and 302-B (murder) of Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 (for creating terrorism by his act).

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2018