Shafqat Hussain’s age: Court reserves judgment on petition’s maintainability

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday reserved judgment on the maintainability of a petition seeking formation of a judicial commission to determine the age of murder convict Shafqat Hussain after the state prosecutor and petitioner’s counsel concluded arguments.

IHC Justice Athar Minallah reserved the verdict till May 11 after the convict’s counsel Dr Tariq Hassan and Deputy Attorney General Waqar Rana completed arguments.

The court has constantly been directing the petitioner’s counsel to present any precedent from across the globe when a case has been reopened after it had been adjudicated by the country’s highest court.

Despite several references to different judgments and lengthy arguments citing different sections of law by the petitioner’s counsel, the question remained unanswered.

The issue of maintainability persists in the case as the state counsel once again argued that it was not a ‘contempt case’ and in such cases, the respondents such as the president and the prime minister have ‘blanket immunity’ under Article 248 of the Constitution. He said that the petitioner was indirectly trying to reopen the case, already adjudicated by the Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, the IHC had stayed the execution after terming the FIA inquiry determining Hussain’s age  illegal.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2015.