The Sindh High Court (SHC) dismissed Tuesday the plea of a death row convict seeking suspension of his execution orders.
A division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar was hearing a petition filed by Shafqat Hussain, who was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court for kidnapping and killing seven-year-old Umair, son of a car dealer. His sentence was upheld by the SHC and the Supreme Court (SC). The president had also rejected his mercy appeal.
The petitioner through Barrister Sarah Belal had approached court, submitting that he was wrongly convicted by the trial court as it had failed to take into consideration that the convict was a juvenile. The petitioner’s counsel argued that the SHC could intervene and stop his hanging because when Hussain was under 18 years of age when he was convicted. She requested the court to suspend his execution orders.
The court observed that after exhausting almost all remedies including review appeal before the SC, the question of juvenility has been raised again, which was not taken up during trial.
At this stage we cannot revisit or pass any order under constitutional jurisdiction to set aside the hierarchy or chain of the judgments in this case, the bench observed, noting that the question of juvenility had been turned down by the apex court.
“We reach to the conclusion that the petition is not maintainable which is dismissed in limine,” the court ruled.
