Prison officials miss court deadline to explain hanging of disabled man

Court awaits officials' response, doctors' assessments to hang wheel-chair bound Abdul Basit

Prison officials missed the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) deadline on Tuesday to explain how they would hang a wheel-chair bound man, BBC reported.

Jail authorities in Faisalabad had been ordered by the court on Monday to explain within 24 hours how they would hang a disabled convict, Abdul Basit, considering the jail manual does not provide instructions in this regard.

Read: Procedure: Jail authorities’ comments sought on execution of a disabled person

The death-row convict, who had been paralysed during his imprisonment, had filed a petition in this regard through Barrister Sarah Belal. The execution has been stayed until jail authorities come up with a clear plan for how they will execute him.

Belal told an LHC division bench that executing a paralysed man was cruel, inhuman and prohibited under Islamic and international laws. She further said that he had already suffered "unusual punishment" and to hang him would constitute a form of "double punishment" which would be illegal.

Read: Disabled murder convict to be hanged from his wheelchair

“Basit had to use a wheelchair following an illness contracted during his imprisonment. He had not been provided adequate treatment by jail authorities,” she added.

However, the complainant’s lawyer said medical reports declaring Basit was disabled were fake. The court ordered that a jail doctor be asked to evaluate the convict and report whether or not he could be hanged.

Basit was convicted six years ago of murder although he claims to be innocent. He contracted tubercular meningitis in prison which left him paralysed from the waist down. He was to be hanged in Lahore last month but it was postponed and petition for his pardon was dismissed.

Read: Life of physically-challenged man on death row hangs upon doctor's assessment: LHC

Maya Foa, director of the Death Penalty Team for the non-governmental organisation, Reprieve, told BBC, “It's shocking that the Pakistani authorities are seeking to hang a paraplegic man - not least because it was the terrible conditions on death row that led to his illness and disability."

"The fact that officials are prepared to hang Basit, without a clear protocol for doing so, shows they are even prepared to bend Pakistan's law to breaking point," she added.

Last week Reprieve called for Pakistan to halt its "grisly experiment with the gallows" and urged the country's judges to enforce the rule of law.

This article originally appeared on BBC