PHOTO: FILE
ATC Judge Muhammad Khalil Naz issued a death warrant for the execution of Noman Siddiqui. The convict had kidnapped and murdered a child named Shahzeb in 2014 after demanding a ransom for his release.
Later, the police arrested him and initiated legal proceedings. When the hearing of the case concluded, the court sentenced Noman to death and 25 years in jail on different sections. The court also ordered him to pay Rs2.2 million diyat to the victim’s family.
After the verdict, Noman filed a petition against the decision in the high court, but it was rejected. The court ordered the carrying out of the death sentence on February 7, 2019.
On January 13, former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar took notice of a death warrant issued against mentally challenged prisoner Khizar Hayat. He sought a report to ascertain the prisoner’s condition and suspended the sentence till further orders. Hayat was serving his sentence at the central jail in Kot Lakhpat.
Murder convicts get death penalty, life term
Nisar directed the law officer to verify whether the condemned prisoner was mentally-ill. He observed that the matter involved basic human rights and needed to be heard on an urgent basis.
A district and sessions judge in Lahore had scheduled the execution of Hayat for January 15. He was sentenced to death in 2003 over the shooting of a fellow police officer. He had spent nearly 15 years on death row. Hayat was first diagnosed as a schizophrenic in 2008 by jail medical authorities.
In 2010, the jail medical officer recommended that Khizar Hayat needed specialised treatment and should be shifted to the psychiatric facility. However, this was never done. In 2017, the Lahore High Court had stayed the execution of Hayat.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2019.
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