ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday summoned the government in two weeks to respond to concerns about the planned execution of murder convict Shafqat Hussain.

Shafqat was arrested in 2004 and sentenced to death. However, in late 2014, the civil society contended that Shafqat was a juvenile when he allegedly murdered a child in Karachi. He was going to be executed on March 19 but a day earlier civil society representatives gathered in front of the presidency against the planned execution. As a result, the hanging was postponed for 72 hours and then for 30 days.

As the 30-day reprieve was about to expire on Friday, a non-governmental organisation, Justice Project Pakistan, filed a petition with the IHC. Though Shafqat is in Karachi jail, the writ was filed with the IHC because the ministry of interior has been made a respondent.

Taking up the petition, the single bench of the IHC, comprising Justice Athar Minallah, issued notices to the respondents, including the president, prime minister and the FIA, with the instruction to reply to the petition within a fortnight.

The petition claimed that the convict had evidence that he was a juvenile in 2004 but the fact about his age was never raised in the courts during the trial and appeals. “Moreover, it is stated that the petitioner was tortured by the police to extract a confession.”

The IHC was pleaded to order the formation of a judicial inquiry with the direction to the National Commission for Human Rights to determine the violation of human rights during the hearing of the case.

Shafqat’s lawyer Sarah Belal in a statement said: “Shafqat’s death sentence was handed down after torture and wrongful arrest. It should never have been allowed to happen. Yet despite having promised to conduct a full and transparent inquiry into the case, the government’s inquiry so far has been riddled with problems and shrouded in secrecy.”

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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