Murder convicts: IHC stays executions for another day

Sentences were to convicts in a double murder and a triple-murder case.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday extended stays of execution for a day in a double and a triple murder case, after one of the counsels challenged the jurisdiction of Islamabad anti-terrorism courts (ATCs).

Rana Kashif Saleem Arfaa, the lawyer for double-murder convict Zulfiqar Ali Khan, said his client was sentenced to death by a Rawalpindi ATC, while his death warrants were issued by an ATC in Islamabad.

A divisional bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aamer Farooq directed the IHC registrar’s office to produce the notification regarding the set up of ATCs in the federal capital and adjourned the cases till Tuesday (today).

Zulfiqar Ali Khan and his accomplice, Khursheed Ahmed, were accused of killing two men — Muhammad Rafiq and Lehrasab — and were awarded death and life imprisonment, respectively, in 1999.

Arfaa further argued that Khan was acquitted under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), and since the ATC had specifically ordered execution by death squad (firing squad), his client could not be put to death by hanging.

The court, however, remarked that the “academic side” — hanging versus firing — would not be touched since the decision was upheld by the apex court.

The other convict, Raees Ahmed, has been on death row since 1999 for killing three of his relatives — Muhammad Saeed, Hassan Akhtar and Faras — in Chirah Village in 1997, over a family matter.

Ahmed’s father, Haroonur Rasheed, and his brother, Muhammad Hanif, were also awarded death sentences, but died in prison before the sentences could be executed, said lawyer Chaudhry Zahoor Hussain. Three others, including a brother of the convict, were released in 2007-2008 after completing their life-term sentences, he added.

While challenging jurisdiction, Hussain said that Ahmed and the other accused were tried under the Suppression of Terrorist Activities Act, 1975, which was repealed after the ATA, 1997 was passed. Besides, the case does not fall within the ambit of ATA, he added.

“The issue has already been decided on by the apex court and this court cannot go against its orders,” the bench had noted in a previous hearing.

The next hearings in both cases are scheduled for Tuesday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, March  31^st,  2015.