Health concerns: Death warrants for murder convict suspended

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday suspended death warrants for a murder convict, jailed at Kot Lakhpat Jail. An LHC division bench, headed by Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, issued the order on a petition moved by Iqbal Bano, the mother of Khizer Hayat.

Through her lawyer Mariam Haq, Bano said Hayat, 41, could not be hanged for being mentally unstable. She said laws did not allow such a person to be executed. She requested the court to stop operation of his death warrants.

The court had issued the death warrants for Tuesday (today). Shadbagh police had arrested Hayat in October, 2001, for a murder. A trial court had awarded him death sentence in 2003.

Bano said her son had become mentally unstable in 2008. She requested the court to order formation of a medical board to evaluate his mental condition. The court has sought reply from the Home Department for June 18.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2015.