Shafqat Hussain hanged in Karachi Central Jail

KARACHI: Shafqat Hussain, who was awarded a death sentence for kidnapping and later killing a seven-year-old boy, was hanged till death in Central Jail Karachi at 4:00 AM on Tuesday.

IG Prisons confirmed that Shafqat Hussain's execution has been performed.

Earlier, a team of doctors examined Shafqat Hussain's health and declared him to be well.

Later, Shafqat Hussain’s family was allowed to meet him for the last time.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had issued Shafqat Hussain’s death warrant for the fifth time. Earlier, his sentence was postponed on four occasions.

Shafqat was sentenced in 2004 for the kidnapping and involuntary murder of a seven-year-old boy who lived in a Karachi apartment building where he worked as a security guard.

Confusion over Shafqat’s date of birth raised questions of whether he was a juvenile or of lawful age in 2004 when he was handed down the death sentence.

The FIA investigation confirmed that even in jail records, Shafqat Hussain’s age was not 14 years at the time he was arrested, nor was he under the age of 18.

But implementation on Shafqat's death sentence was stayed until a decision over his plea for a judicial commission to ascertain his age.

Last month the Islamabad High Court dismissed Shafqat's plea for a judicial inquiry into his age, and lifted the stay order, paving way for the execution of the death row convict.

Pakistan lifted a moratorium on capital punishment in December following a deadly attack by Taliban militants on Peshawar’s Army Public School which killed over 150 people, 134 of them children.

The moratorium, in force since 2008, was initially lifted only in terrorism cases, but in March the government extended it to all capital crimes.