ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the suspension of the Lahore Central Jail superintendent and issued a contempt of court notice against him for releasing a convict whose appeal was pending before the court.

The apex court which had summoned the Punjab home secretary, and the jail superintendent, let off the home secretary after his statement that he passed a general order in line with a notification issued under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance.

The SC bench also ordered the Punjab government to submit a list of the convicts who were given benefit of the notification issued under the ordinance. The case would again be taken up for hearing on Oct 30.

The bench, consisted of Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Falak Sher, and Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal.

Sher Khan, was awarded death sentence in 1993, by the Mianwali district and sessions judge for murdering his neighbour. His appeal was dismissed by the Lahore High Court.

The convict, however, raised a new plea before the high court, stating that he was below 18 years of age at the time of offence. The plea was raised to get benefit under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, under which death sentence to a juvenile was prohibited.

When the convict approached the Supreme Court, it granted leave to appeal to examine the question if he was 18 years of age at the time of offence or not.

Meanwhile, the president issued a notification on Dec 13, 2001, giving general commutation to all the juveniles who had been awarded capital punishment.

The Punjab government also commuted the death sentence of Sher Khan into life imprisonment when his appeal was still pending.

After converting his death sentence into life term, he was granted 16-year remission, and released from jail.

When his appeal was taken up, the apex court was informed that the convict, whose appeal it was hearing, was already out of jail.

On inquiry by the court, the home secretary informed the court that he converted the death sentence of Sher Khan into life imprisonment but not as a specific case.

Chaudhry Mohammad Afzal, who is now superintendent of the Lahore Central Jail, was asked to explain why he released the convict.

His plea was that he treated the convict of 18 years of age on the basis of a warrant which he had received from the district and sessions court, in which his age was mentioned as less than 18 years.

The court ordered the superintendent’s suspension, and also directed that he should submit a statement why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against him.