Islamabad - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday in limine turned down a petition of a death row convict Faisal Mehmood who was seeking formation of judicial commission to determine his age.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui conducted the hearing moved by the convict through his lawyer Mehdi Hassan Advocate. In his petition, the counsel contended that his client’s age was less than 18 years when he was awarded life imprisonment in 2000. He continued that Faisal passed his matriculation in prison, adding he had also attached computerised birth certificate from union council and primary school certificate with the petition to prove that it was a matter of juvenile.
During the hearing, Justice Siddiqui asked from the counsel that if he had read the verdict given by the court in the matter of Shafqat Hussain who was also seeking formation of judicial commission to determine his age.
Advocate Mehdi adopted that this matter is different from that of Shafqat Hussain, as he had submitted the application for age determination along with the clemency appeal to the president of Pakistan.
However, he added that their age determination application was not heard and black warrants were issued to execute Faisal on May 27, 2017.
Then, Justice Siddiqui remarked what the high court could do while the Supreme Court of Pakistan had also awarded him capital punishment in this matter.
At this, the counsel argued that as per law, the court has the powers to form a judicial commission to determine the age of his client.
After hearing the arguments of the lawyer, the court reserved its judgment which was later announced by rejecting the plea.