AJK president seeks reprieve for Shafqat

ISLAMABAD: In a last-ditch attempt to save Shafqat Hussain, a convicted killer whose case has attracted international attention, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) president requested a stay of execution, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday (today).

Shafqat Hussain was sentenced to death for killing a seven-year-old boy in Karachi in 2004 but has had several stays of execution, most recently in June.

Late Monday, Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan, president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the home region of Shafqat, requested a stay of execution while authorities look into the controversy surrounding his age.

In his letter to the president, the AJK leader said, “On the basis of the recommendations of the Sindh Human Rights Commission, I have decided to conduct an enquiry at the level of the Government of Kashmir into the matter of the juvenility of Shafqat Hussain.”

“Foregoing in view, it is in the interest of justice that the execution of Mr. Hussain on Tuesday 4th August, 2015 may please be postponed on humanitarian grounds,” he wrote.

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