LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected a petition calling for public execution of the convict, Imran Ali in Zainab’s rape and murder case.

A division bench, headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali, rejected the petition for being premature.

It observed that Imran Ali, who was awarded four death penalties by an anti-terrorism court on 17 Feb, has yet not exhausted three forums of appeal against his conviction. He can’t be executed until rejection of his appeals by all the forums, it added.

The petitioner argued that the high court could issue orders for hanging the convict in public as there was no need to make an amendment to the law to provide for public executions in the country.

He pleaded that the convict should be hanged right where the body of little Zainab was found.