ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court here on Monday halted the execution of death-row convict Shafqat Hussain after the court decided to take up his appeal today (Tuesday) morning against the order of Islamabad High Court.
Shafqat Hussain who was convicted by an anti-terrorism court of Karachi for killing a seven-year-old child in the metropolitan city was to be executed at 4:30am on Tuesday (today).
The authorities at Central Jail Karachi confirmed that it had received orders to halt execution of Shafqat Hussain, some private TV channels reported. However, Shahab Siddiqui, the spokesperson for Justice Project Pakistan, an NGO pursuing the case of Shafqat Hussain, told The Nation that they had not received any such information and added that he was seeing about halting orders through TV channels.
The Supreme Court on Monday decided to take up Shafqat Hussain’s appeal against an Islamabad High Court order about his age and appeal was fixed at 9am today. The three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, will hear the appeal.
Shafqat was sentenced in 2004 for kidnapping and murdering a seven-year-old boy who lived in an area of Karachi where he worked as a security guard.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had dismissed the petition of Shafqat Hussain, calling for the formation of a judicial commission to determine the age of Hussain at the time when he committed the crime.
The death-row convict claims that he was a juvenile when he committed the crime in 2004 and under the laws related to juvenile crime, any such criminal cannot be awarded death sentence.
Shafqat Hussain’ execution has been halted for the second time. Earlier, the federal government halted his execution following an outcry by human rights groups when he was to be hanged on March 19, 2015.