Capital punishment: IHC stays execution by ‘death squad’

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted on Tuesday a stay on the execution of a death sentence in a double murder case after the counsel for the convict informed the court that he was to be executed through death squad and not by hanging. Justice Athar Minallah of the IHC stayed the execution of the convict, Zulfiqar Ali Khan, and directed the attorney general and advocate general of Islamabad to assist the court with legal opinion in this matter and adjourned hearing till March 30. Khan, who is currently confined at Kot-Lakhpat jail of Lahore, was scheduled to be hanged on the morning of March 30. He was awarded death sentence by an Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) of Rawalpindi in 1999. The counsel, Rana Kashif, maintained that since the ATC had ordered for execution of the convict by a death squad, therefore technically his client could not be hanged.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2015.