The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday has rejected the plea seeking public execution of convict Imran.
Imran is set to be executed on October 17, for the rape and murder of seven-year-old girl Zainab.
A petition seeking for the public execution of Imran was moved by the Zainab's father. He filed a petition on October 13 in Lahore High Court (LHC) demanding public hanging of convict Imran Ali.
As the hearing of the plea went underway today, Zainab's father counsel Ishtiaq Chaudhry, argued, "A public execution can be carried out as per Section 22 of the Anti-Terrorism Act."
The court, however, rejected the plea and said, "according to Section 22, this is the government's domain and we are not the government."
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), while issuing the death warrants of Imran Ali on October 12, had ordered to hang him till death on October 17 at Central Jail in Lahore.
On February 2017, Imran was handed four separate death sentences after being convicted of the rape and murder of Zainab.
He further received life imprisonment and fine totalling 3.2 million rupees ($30,000) for additional charges of hiding the victim’s body.
One million rupees of the fine was also decided to be given in compensation to Zainab’s family.
On June 12, Supreme Court (SC) had turned down Imran’s plea against the death sentence.
Zainab was found dead in a skip on January 9, 2017, in Kasur district near Lahore several days after her disappearance.
Imran was arrested two weeks after he committed the crime that ignited nationwide protests.
Taking suo moto notice, the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) ordered the concerned authorities to submit a report within 24 hours.
The rape and murder of Zainab Ansari was the 12th such case in Kasur district in the last year.