KARACHI: Execution of death row prisoner Shafqat Hussain had stayed for a fourth time, authorities said on Tuesday.
According to Liaquat Khoso, an official at Karachi Central Jail, the order to stay Shafqat Hussain’s execution was received from the Supreme Court just hours before Hussain was scheduled to hang.
He said the execution was halted after Hussain’s conviction was challenged once again in the Court and an urgent hearing by a three-judge panel headed by the Chief Justice was set.
Hussain was to be executed in connection with the 2004 killing of a seven-year-old. His family and lawyers have said he was only 14 at the time of the alleged crime and that he was tortured into confession.
Earlier, a European Union (EU) delegation after meeting Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah asked the CM to defer death row convict Shafqat Mehmood’s execution.
The five member EU delegation in their meeting with the CM maintained that Shafqat Hussain has no terrorism charge upon him, local media reported.
The EU delegation said that they will send the request in written.
Hussain was first due to be executed in March 2015, but the execution was stayed while the authorities conducted an inquiry into his age at the time of the crime.
An executive inquiry by the Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also concluded that Hussain was actually 23 at the time of his arrest.
