President stays execution of Shoaib Sarwar

Sarwar's execution put off for 21-days following orders from the President

The execution of Shoaib Sarwar, convicted for murder of a policeman’s son, was stayed after last-minute intervention of President Mamnoon Hussain, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Sarwar was sentenced to death for the murder of the son of a police inspector in Wah Cantonment in 1998. His family had argued that he was only 17 at the time and was trying to protect his sister and her friends from neighbourhood harassment when a scuffle turned violent and Qais Nawaz was shot dead.

He was due to be executed after a local court set the date following applications filed by complainants in the case. Sarwar’s family too had been called for one last visit on Monday.

But on Tuesday, the President intervened and stayed his execution for 21-days.

A moratorium on executions had been lifted in the aftermath of the December 16 attack on a school in Peshawar. Since then, at least 22 people convicted on terror charges have been hanged.

Shahab Siddiqi of the non-profit human rights law firm Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) who represents Sarwar, argue that he was a minor when he committed the crime. He further argued that Sarwar had been convicted by a civil court, rather than an anti-terror court or under terror charges and that the moratorium had only been lifted for those convicted for committing terrorism.