LAHORE, Oct 14: A full bench of the Federal Shariat Court is set to take up the appeals of two juveniles on Thursday, who are undergoing life-imprisonment as collaborators of the man who killed 100 children.
Nadeem Iqbal, alias Deemi and Mohammad Sabir, now serving their terms at the Bahawalpur Borstal, filed appeals against their conviction with the Lahore High Court more than two years ago. A division bench of the LHC sent the appeals to the Federal Shariat Court, which started hearing the case on Sept 24, 2001, sent notices to the state and held that the case would be heard “in the near future”.
The high court had observed that any provision of the law relating to the Hudood Ordinance in offences like Qazf and Zina, should be heard by the Federal Shariat Court.
The FSC bench hearing the case comprises Justice Dr Fida Mohammad Khan, Justice Saeedur Rehman Farrukh and Justice SA Rabbani. The Punjab government has assigned Assistant Advocate-General Raja Abdur Rehman to defend the impugned judgment and assist the court.
This particular case shocked the entire Pakistani nation and convulsed the world media towards the end of 1999 when the Ravi Road police registered a case against Javed Iqbal, Shehzad alias Guddu, Nadeem alias Deemi and Mohammad Sabir on charges of sodomizing and murdering 100 children and then disposing of the bodies in drums full of acid. Deemi and Sabir were under 14 years of age at that time.
The FIR was registered on Dec 12, 1999, and sent to the additional sessions judge, Allah Bakhsh Ranjha, who on March 16, 2000, pronounced death sentence for Javed Iqbal on 100 counts and for Shehzad alias Guddu on 98 counts. Nadeem and Sabir, said to be minors, were awarded life imprisonment on multiple counts beside a huge fine.
Nadeem was to undergo an imprisonment of 273 years and pay Rs3.3 million as Diyat (blood money). Sabir was sentenced to imprisonment of 63 years and payment of Rs760,878 as Diyat. They were serving their terms at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, but when Javed Iqbal and Shehzad “committed suicide” in the prison, they were transferred to the Borstal.
Javed Iqbal and Shehzad were found dead in their prison cell on Oct 9, 2001, and the jail authorities said they had committed suicide. Their necks were found slit with a sharp-edged weapon. How these weapons came into the possession of the two convicts is a mystery to this day. They had also filed appeals that would be heard by the Federal Shariat Court along with the appeals of Nadeem and Sabir.