On a knife’s edge: Death warrant sought after negotiations fail

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge sent a report to Lahore District and Sessions Judge Tariq Iftikhar Ahmed on Friday requesting a black warrant to be issued for a murder convict after the two sides failed to reach a compromise. 

Muhammad Arsalan, son of the deceased who was murdered in 1995, appeared before Additional District and Sessions Judge Naseem Ahmed Virk on Friday and said he could not forgive Azhar Mehmood for killing his father. He said the two parties had failed to reach a compromise and requested that Mehmood be hanged.

Earlier, Mehmood, imprisoned at Gujrat District Jail, had been scheduled to be executed on March 18. A Gujrat district and sessions judge had appointed a Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Asif to witness the execution and record his last will.

Arsalan and Mehmood’s relatives had approached the magistrate and told him that they were trying to reach a compromise.

The execution was put off and the Gujrat district and sessions judge sent a report on this to Lahore District and Sessions Judge Tariq Iftikhar Ahmed who had referred the matter to Judge Virk.

After recording Arsalan’s statement on Friday, the judge submitted a report to Judge Ahmed saying the two parties had failed to reach a compromise and requested a black warrant to be issued for Mehmood. The matter has been referred to the Gujrat District Jail where prison authorities will initiate the process to obtain a black warrant again.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2015.