Prisoner Shafqat Hussain. PHOTO: REPRIEVE.ORG.UK
ISLAMABAD:
Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday directed all respondents, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain, to submit replies within a fortnight, pertaining to Shafqat Hussain’s petition calling for a judicial inquiry into determining his age.
The court comprising Justice Athar Minallah issued pre-admission notices to respondents, comprising the premier, president, the interior ministry, IG prisons Sindh, and the National Commission for Human Rights among others, after which the court will decide if the petition is maintainable or not.
The petitioner has also made Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, National Database and Registration Authority, National Commission for Human Rights and the Local Government & Rural Development Department of Azad Jammu and Kashmir respondents in the petition.
Shafqat was arrested and sentenced to death in 2004 for the alleged kidnapping and killing of a seven-year-old boy from an apartment building in Karachi where he was working as a guard.
Shafqat, who was scheduled to be hanged on the morning of March 19, was given reprieve just hours before the marked time after a campaign by his lawyers and members of civil society pointed out the possibility of a mistrial.
On March 18, President Mamnoon postponed the execution for 30 days on Hussain’s mercy appeal. The 30-day stay of execution was set to expire on Friday. In today’s hearing, the death row convict through his counsel requested for a judicial inquiry saying that there was prima facie evidence that he was a juvenile when the trial court sentenced him to death in 2004.
In the petition, the counsel stated that in light of the petitioner’s birth certificate, the death sentence prima facie deprived him of certain fundamental rights enshrined in the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000.
Further, Shafqat’s counsel added that at the time of his trial he remained an undocumented juvenile and lacked any appropriate government identification records pertaining to his date of birth. Hussain, at the time was presumed to be an adult and was tried accordingly, the petition stated.
“The death sentence of the petitioner is in violation of the applicable laws and is even more astonishing given that the state has failed to discharge its responsibility for establishing the juvenile’s age prior to prosecuting him,” it read.
The petitioner said that interior ministry set up an ‘enquiry committee’ of FIA officials to determine Shafqat’s juvenility, a matter which was beyond its legal authority and competence. While expressing dissatisfaction over FIA investigations, the petitioner said that FIA does not have the requisite competence to conduct any enquiry as to the juvenile status of the petitioner nor the mandate to do so under its own laws.
The counsel requested the court declare the inquiry committee of the interior ministry and the FIA unlawful and direct the respondents to submit all records, documents, affidavits, statements and supporting documents pertaining to the petitioner before the court.
Shafqat’s counsel further requested the court to declare that his age would only be determined by a duly constituted judicial inquiry. In addition, the court was requested to restrain the respondents from taking any adverse action which could be deemed detrimental or prejudicial to the petitioner during the pendency of the petition or until the final decision.
Following the hearing, the court issued pre-admission notices to all respondents with directions to submit contents pertaining to the case within a fortnight. Once the comments are received in court, if the court deems fit, then they would be issued with notices for regular hearing.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2015.
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