Murder convict plea for retrial dismissed

LAHORE
The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking retrial of a physically disabled murder convict, scheduled to be executed on August 27 (today) in Multan jail.
Advocate AK Dogar in his arguments said his client Maqbool Hussain, 67, was not given the right to defend during the trial. He argued that the trial was totally flawed as Hussain was not given right to engage his counsel. He said although a prosecutor appeared on his (convict) behalf but he himself could not engage private counsel to defend the charges.
The counsel said under Article 10 (1) of the Constitution every citizen has an undeniable right to engage his counsel after being arrested. He asked the court to set aside the death warrants and order a fresh trial.
Hussain, disabled with one leg, was awarded death sentence, life imprisonment on four counts and a fine of Rs 50,000 by an anti-terrorism court of Multan in 2000. He was convicted of killing five persons in 1996.
However, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Ijaz Ahmad Ch dismissed the petition.
The Lahore High Court had already dismissed a writ petition and review petition of Maqbool Hussain.