ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The supreme court has stayed the execution of two condemned prisoners of Jhang, who were slated to be executed on Thursday.

The two men received a new lease of life when Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, stayed their execution on the petition that legal heirs of the deceased had agreed to pardon them.

Ashiq Hussain and Khalid Hussain, whose death warrants had been issued, filed a petition that they were in the process of striking a compromise with the legal heirs of the deceased under the Qisas and Diyat law, and affixed affidavits of the legal heirs who verified that negotiations were going on.

The case will again be taken up after one month, and if a compromise was reached, the trial court would be directed to release them. And if they failed, the death sentence would be ordered as the SC had already dismissed their appeals.