Saved by a whisker: Sukkur jail prisoner gets 10 lifelines in three years

Jalal Morejo violated a jirga when he killed a man to avenge his relative’s death.

SUKKUR: Jalal Morejo is no ordinary prisoner. Despite being on death row, he has escaped death 10 times, making him the first such prisoner in the history of the country.

Jalal, a prisoner of Sukkur Central Jail-I, has been in prison since 1997 and out of these 14 years, he has spent the past three years waiting for death.

According to his case history, Jalal, a resident of Chanari village in Naushero Feroz, killed a man, Haji Muhammad Haroon Morejo, to avenge the murder of one of his relatives in 1997. He shot Haroon while he was offering Friday prayers in the village mosque.

The dispute between Jalal and Haroon’s group began when Jalal’s relative was shot by rival group. A jirga was held to settle the matter and it decided that Haroon’s group will pay a fine. A part of the payment was made on the spot but Jalal violated the jirga’s decision and killed Haroon.

A case was registered against him at Naushero Feroz police station, after which he was arrested and presented in the court of district and sessions judge. He was then sent to jail as an under-trial prisoner.

On April 7, 2000, district and sessions court Naushero Feroz announced the verdict of the murder case and awarded death penalty to Jalal. He filed a review petition in the Sindh High Court, which was dismissed on January 28, 2004.

Later, he moved the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the verdict of the high court but that petition was also dismissed on July 27, 2005.

Finally, Jalal sent a mercy appeal to the then president General Pervez Musharraf, which was dismissed on December 24, 2007. After the dismissal of his mercy petition, his first black warrant, or date of execution, was issued for March 14, 2008, but just two days before the execution, his death penalty was postponed for two months because the newly installed Pakistan Peoples Party government was going to amend the law of death sentence.

Jalal’s second black warrant was issued for April 3, 2008, but it was also postponed. The third black warrant was issued for June 12, 2009, the fourth one was issued for July 10, 2009, the fifth for September 14, 2009, the sixth for November 18, 2009, the seventh for January 4, 2010, and after two months, the eighth black warrant was issued for March 17, 2010 and the ninth one for May 31, 2010.

After postponing his death penalty for seven months, the tenth black warrant was issued on January 12 (today) but this time too, his death penalty has been postponed till March 12, 2011.

The number of times Jalal Morejo was scheduled to be executed:

First black warrant               March 14, 2008

Second black warrant          April 3, 2008

Third black warrant             June 12, 2009

Fourth black warrant           July 10, 2009

Fifth black warrant               September 14, 2009

Sixth black warrant              November 18, 2009

Seventh black warrant         January 4, 2010

Eighth black warrant            March 17, 2010

Ninth black warrant             May 31, 2010

Tenth black warrant             January 12, 2011 then

March 12, 2011

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2011.