Indonesia on Thursday halted execution of Pakistani citizen, Zulfiqar Ali, after protests throughout the country and diplomatic efforts by the Pakistani Foreign Office.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to Indonesia Muhammed Aaqil Nadeem said that he was officially informed that Zulfiqar Ali’s execution had been halted.
Ali’s family carried out a protest in Lahore on Thursday against his imminent execution.
The ambassador said he was not sure whether Ali was absolved or not. However, implementation on execution had been halted for now.
A total of 14 people had been sentenced to death by the Indonesian courts, but execution of 10 of the condemned prisoners was halted. The remaining four, including three foreigners, were executed.
Earlier on Thursday, Indonesia rejected appeals from the United Nations and European Union to halt the execution of 14 drug convicts including foreigners, as speculation mounted they could face the firing squad in a matter of hours.
The group, including Pakistani national Zulfiqar Ali and citizens of Nigeria, India and Zimbabwe as well as Indonesia, had been placed in isolation on a prison island where Jakarta carries out executions.
Authorities stepped up preparations with ambulances carrying coffins seen crossing over to Nusakambangan island.
Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir defended the executions as “pure law enforcement”.
Jakarta faced accusations of breaking its own laws by apparently planning to hold the executions on Thursday.
Diplomats and lawyers say they were given the legally required three days notice of the plan on Tuesday afternoon and believed the earliest it could happen was Friday.
Pakistan has been angered about the planned execution of Ali — whom rights groups claim was beaten into confessing.
Indonesia last carried out executions in April 2015 when it put to death eight drug convicts, including two Australians, sparking international outrage.
But President Joko Widodo has defended the use of the death penalty to combat rising narcotics use.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Wednesday called on Indonesia to end the “unjust” use of the death penalty, while the EU urged Jakarta to stop the “cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent”.
Earlier, it was revealed that Pakistan was in talks with Jakarta and said it remained hopeful about the possibility of clemency for Zulfiqar Ali.
Addressing a weekly briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said Islamabad is in touch with top officials in the Indonesian capital and will keep up efforts to halt Ali’s iminent execution ’till the last moment’.
Ali was arrested in November 2004 in connection with a 300-gram heroine case in Jakarta. A co-accused in the case, Gurdip Singh, retracted his statement against Zulfiqar, saying the confession had been coerced from him.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, who was in Laos for an Asean Regional Forum meeting, sought a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi on the issue.
Indonesian Ambassador Iwan Suyudhie Amri was also summoned to the Foreign Office over the expected execution.
As a saudi once told me that Indians are very hard working but papistanis just come to hang in Saudi. Mostly papistanis are either drug smugglers or drug peddlers wherever they go and thus are executed in "brotherly" muslim countries.
We cannot judge another country's judicial system. A crime is a crime wherever it is committed and one has to face the conequences.
Hang him twice. One for the crime and second for disgracing Pakistan.
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