Death penalty: Execution of disabled convict stayed

He was scheduled to be hanged today

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Monday suspended the death warrants of a disabled murder convict accused of killing five people.

Maqbool Hussain, 67, was scheduled to be hanged at Multan Central Jail on Tuesday (today).

He had filed a writ petition saying he had been sentenced to four life terms, a death sentence and Rs50,000 fine by anti-terrorism court in Multan in the year 2,000. He said the LHC’s Multan Bench had upheld the death sentence on June 13, 2006. The Supreme Court had dismissed his appeal on July 30, 2015 and he was scheduled to be executed on August 4.

Hussain said his trial was flawed and he had not been given the right to engage counsel. He said a lawyer had appeared on his behalf but he had not been allowed to hire counsel to defend him.

He said according to Article 10(1) of the Constitution, every citizen had the right to engage counsel after arrest.

He said that he was accused of killing five people, Muhammad Hussain, Abdul Ghaffar, Muhammad Azhar and two others, in Multan in 1996.

He said his rivals had shot him in the leg leaving him disabled. He asked the court to stay his execution as the legal requirements for his trial had not been fulfilled.

The court stayed his execution and sought comments from the federal law secretary and jail authorities on August 11 – the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2015.