FIA exposes lies of NGOs’ ‘Save Shafqat’ campaign

ISLAMABAD: The FIA has submitted its inquiry report to the Interior Ministry on the age controversy of the condemned prisoner Shafqat Hussain, exposing the dirty game of certain NGOs, which had made up a false and concocted case of showing the killer of a seven-year-old child as a “juvenile”.
On Saturday, the Interior Ministry forwarded the report to the president, prime minister and the Supreme Court’s Human Rights Cell.
The report is also being forwarded to the UN and other international human rights organisations to counter the case-related sham propaganda recently unleashed by some NGOs to ridicule Pakistan’s criminal justice system and get the death penalty banned.
The FIA report not only confirmed from jail the police and court record that the killer was 23 in 2004, but also the convict’s latest as well as 2004 photos obtained by the FIA, the interviews of certain witnesses etc. also negate what has been falsely propagated through the NGOs campaign which led to the halting of Shafqat’s hanging last month.
The FIA has also collected court documents where even the killer had verified his actual age before a judge.
The report also shows that the fraudulently issued Dec 2014 birth certificate of Shafqat Hussain has also been cancelled by the AJK authority concerned.
During the 10-year legal battle not even once at any stage did Shafqat Hussain or his family challenge his age or pleaded that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.
In addition to loads of evidence, the CPLC and certain TV channels, including Geo News, also covered the live events leading to the arrest of the culprit and the recovery of the deceased boy’s body from a nullah on the pointing of Shafqat Hussain.
Shafqat was not a juvenile and thus the issue was never raised by anyone. Even for those who were present at the time of his arrest, he was a grown up man and not a child. Otherwise only in 2004, a total of 1,400 offenders were categorized as juvenile in the Karachi jail.
The FIA also interviewed his lawyer Mr. Solangi, who was hired by the killer’s brother. Solangi confirmed to the FIA that Shafqat Hussain’s age was never an issue during the whole trial. The issue of torture was though raised before the court but still he was convicted and given death sentence.
Facts show that Shafqat Hussain had not only killed the boy, but also demanded ransom from his parents. Presently confined to the Central Jail Karachi, Shafqat had killed the seven-year-old child whose family lived in a flat of the same building where he served as a watchman (chowkidar). He lured the child into his room and killed him.
Five years prior to this crime, Shafqat was hired as chowkidar. It means if he was 14 in 2004 then his age at the time of his hiring as chowkidar was only nine, which itself speaks volume for the lies of the NGOs.
According to the killer’s own confession, he lured the child into showing him a rabbit. Since there was no rabbit and the killer’s intentions were also wrong, the child shouted and tried to run away. Shafqat hit the child on his head with a rod, killing him on the spot.
Later he threw the body in a nearby nullah. Since no one suspected him, he started making phone calls to the parents demanding ransom for the release of the child already killed.
He was caught red-handed while collecting the ransom money, as the parents had already engaged the police.
The phone record also spoke against him. Following the police interrogation, Shafqat not only confessed to his inhuman act, but also took the police to the nullah where he had thrown the child’s body. Geo News reporter and cameraman were accompanying the police team at that stage.
According to the police record, the killer was admitted to the Central Prison Karachi on May 31, 2004. At the time of his arrest, the killer was 23 years of age. Because of his confessional statement and the relevant evidence, the Anti-Terrorism Court No III Karachi awarded him death on September 1, 2004.
The convict filed an appeal with the Sindh High Court against his conviction, but the court upheld his death penalty in May 2006. Later, Shafqat approached the Supreme Court, which dismissed his criminal appeal in October 2007.
On July 11, 2012, former president Asif Ali Zardari rejected his mercy petition and his execution was fixed for August 8, 2012 but was later postponed till June 30, 2013.
His second execution was fixed for August 22, 2013 but the same was also postponed following the Interior Ministry’s letter which held in abeyance all executions.
After the December 2014 decision of the government to end the moratorium on the death penalty, Shafqat Hussain’s black warrant was issued on January 14, 2015. But again a letter dated January 6, 2015 issued by the Interior Ministry stayed his execution.
Later, the Interior Ministry issued another letter to all the provinces directing them to proceed in cases of condemned prisoners strictly as per the law where all legal options and avenues had been exhausted and mercy petitions rejected.
The Sindh Home Department again processed Shafqat Hussain’s case for execution of his death penalty. A black warrant was again issued and he was to be sent to the gallows on March 19 at 05:30 am, but his execution was again postponed initially for three days and later for another 30 days.
It was the NGOs’ campaign to prove Shafqat Hussain a juvenile, which had forced the government to stop the execution. While delaying the execution, the Interior Ministry had ordered an inquiry into the matter and assigned the FIA to dig out all the facts.
All of a sudden from nowhere in December 2014, “Save Shafqat” campaign was massively launched by certain NGOs, which propagated that a juvenile was being hanged by Pakistan and this was a serious case of miscarriage of justice.
In Dec 2014, Shafqat Hussain’s birth certificate was issued by a local council in Neelum Valley only recently on the basis of an affidavit by the family. But later it was cancelled being wrong.
Later Shafqat Hussain’s 2004 and 2015 photos were also made public which too strongly negated the NGOs propaganda. In his 2015 photo Shafqat Hussain was shown with long beard, which interestingly he shaved off just recently to look young.
The most unfortunate part of the NGOs campaign was that though they made a false and concocted case of “human right’s violation” for the killer, they ignored the human rights and the feelings of the parents of the killed child.
Only a few days back, one of the NGOs is reported to have approached the Islamabad High Court with the request that the government should set up a judicial commission on the matter already decided by no less than the apex court of the country.