Civil society demands Shafqat’s retrial

Shafqat Hussain was sentenced to death when he was a juvenile

KARACHI: Members of the civil society have demanded a retrial of Shafqat Hussain, who was sentenced to death while he was still a juvenile.

Representatives of Child Rights Movement (CRM), Sindh, gathered outside Karachi Press Club on Monday to ask the prime minister to intervene as Hussain's execution is scheduled for March 19.  "Even his age in the FIR has been wrongly registered as 26," said Rana Asif Habib of the Initiator Human Development Foundation. "It's a clear case of undue influence under severe torture. How is it even justified?"

Habib pointed out that the Access to Justice Program was run by the Asian Development Bank in Pakistan but there are no apparent results of such programmes. "Even the lawyers didn't play their due role in this case," he claimed. "It amounts to intellectual corruption that is incapable of giving justice."

Activist Shafiq Kandhro of CRM said that Hussain should not have been tried in the anti-terrorism court in the first place. He was 14 years old at the time and it was clearly a juvenile court matter, he said, adding that he has already spent 11 years in prison. "The government is simply trading off these children to protect bigger cases," he claimed.

Kandhro also added that the government's stance is in direct conflict with the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 and United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child. "Chaudhry Nisar had said earlier that a fair trial will be conducted again, where are his promises? Why are political parties not standing up against it?"

Islami Yakhjeti Council's general secretary Allama Abdul Khalique Faridi said that Islam condemns capital punishment on children. "It is the responsibility of the judiciary to conduct a fair trial," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2015.