Court seeks disabled convict’s execution procedure

LAHORE
The Lahore High Court on Monday directed Faisalabad jail authorities to explain procedure of hanging disabled convicts as Pakistan’s Jail Manual provides no instructions to this effect.
A division bench led by Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq was hearing a petition against execution of a ‘paralysed’ condemned prisoner Abdul Basit. His hanging had already been stayed by the court.
Barrister Sarah Belal representing the convict argued that execution of a paralysed man would be cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment that was prohibited under Islamic and international laws.
She told the bench that Basit was paralysed from the waist down and used a wheelchair as a result of an illness he contracted while in prison, for which he did not receive adequate treatment.
The lawyer contended that the convict had already suffered unusual punishment, and to try to execute him now would be a form of “double punishment.”
Basit, 43, was convicted and sentenced to death for killing one Asif Nadeem of Okara in 2009.
Counsel of the complainant of the murder case opposed the petition and said all medical reports showing the convict disability were fabricated.
The bench observed that declaring a convict fit or unfit for execution was duty of jail doctor; however, the court wanted to know the procedure to hang a disabled man, if authorities were allowed to implement the execution. The bench adjourned hearing for Tuesday (today).