ATC upholds SHC’s stay of two prisoners’ execution

Karachi
An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday upheld the Sindh High Court’s order of staying the execution of two death row prisoners till March 6 and granted the families a day’s time to submit a legal document as proof of the pardon granted to the convicts by the family of the man they murdered in Korangi in 1998.
The ATC headed by Judge Anand Ram Seerani would hear the defense attorneys’ as well as the prosecutor (state)’s statement on Thursday (today).
Execution orders of Muhammed Faisal and Muhammed Afzal, on death row for murdering Abdul Jabbar during a robbery, was stayed by the SHC on March 2 in order for the convicts’ families to approach an ATC after they claimed that the convict’s were pardoned by the latter’s family; also claimed to have paid the compensation money.
The concerned ATC had previously issued black warrants of the prisoners for March 5 following an application of the central prison authority seeking a final date for the execution.
The two men along with another accomplice Kashif Khan were awarded the capital punishment on July 7, 1999. However, Khan died during trial.
Petitions challenging the verdict were filed by the convicts in the SHC as well as the SC but were dismissed.
The prisoners had then sent mercy petitions to President Mamnoon Hussain who along with six other mercy pleas from Sindh rejected their appeals too. At least 22 prisoners have been executed after the moratorium on death penalty was lifted in the wake of the Peshawar school attack on December 16, 2014.
Two convicts associated with a banned militant outfit were hanged at the Karachi Central Jail on February 3. They were found guilty of killing a doctor in the Soldier Bazaar area in June 2001.
Mohammed Azam alias Sharif and Attaullah alias Qasim were sentenced to death in 2004 for the murder of Dr Ali Raza in June 2001 by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi had sentenced them to death. Both the convicts were moved to Sukkur jail from where they were brought to Karachi after an ATC on January 19 issued their black warrants.
Strict security arrangements were made at the central jail for the last couple of days where police, Rangers and army personnel were deployed to thwart any terrorist attack. All the roads leading to the jail were closed for vehicular traffic from Monday night by law enforcing agencies while patrolling in and around the jail had been intensified, jail officials said.