Intra court appeal: Shafqat Hussain’s plea dismissed

Two-member bench upholds the court’s May 11 order.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court dismissed on Thursday Shafqat Hussain’s intra court appeal challenging a May 11 IHC judgment, maintaining that the petition calling for the formation of a judicial commission to determine his age was not maintainable.

An IHC division bench, comprising Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, dismissed the appeal against the single bench judgment.

On May 11, Justice Athar Minallah had dismissed Hussain’s plea for his age to be verified by a judicial forum.

Hussain’s counsel Tariq Hassan had requested the court to set aside the May 11 order.

Hussain was arrested and sentenced to death in 2004 for kidnapping and killing a seven-year-old boy from an apartment building in Karachi where he was working as a security guard.

Earlier, the court had repeatedly directed the petitioner to present any precedent from across the globe where a case was reopened by a lower court after being decided by the apex court.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2015.