LAHORE:
Kanizan, fifty four years of age, might be the first woman to claim the distinction of first woman executed in Pakistan.
Kanizan has been in jail for the past 26 years, on account of seven murders that she carried out with her accomplice and love Khan Muhammad in 1989.
Khan was hanged in 2003, but Kanizan has escaped execution so far on account of being ‘mentally unwell’.
Kanizan was a resident of Toba Tek Singh and recently shifted to Kot Lakhpat Jail for execution.
Kanizan is accused of killing five minor siblings and their mother, who were found slaughtered at their house in Kukranwala village on July 28, 1989. Khan Muhammad had registered an FIR against an unidentified accused for killing his eight-month pregnant wife Mariam Bibi and children Shaukat Ali, 4, Razia,6, Liaqat Ali, 7, Hanifan Bibi, 9, and Aslam Ali, 13, according to sources.
It later turned out that it was Muhammad himself who had committed the murders. After his arrest, Muhammad confessed to the multiple killings in connivance with Kanizan. The police also arrested Kanizan and charged them both of individually killing three people with an axe and a knife, reportedly.
At present, Kanizan remains the only condemned woman prisoner whose appeals against the execution have been dismissed by the Supreme Court as well as the President of Pakistan. The total number of condemned women prisoners in Punjab stand at 47, authorities claim.