Pakistan to hang paralysed octogenarian murder convict

Pakistan, the world’s third most prolific executioner, is set to hang an elderly paralysed murder convict following the rejection of his mercy appeal by the President. Khan Iqbal, who is in his 80s, was arrested in a murder case on August 1, 1996, and was convicted and sentenced to death by the lower courts. 

Iqbal is lodged in Adiala jail of garrison city of Rawalpindi where he will be sent to the gallows on Saturday, Dawn reported. “After the sessions court issued his black warrants, the jail authorities have asked his family to meet the convict on Friday at Adiala jail,” it said.  

According to an official of the Executive Director of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), over 400 persons have been executed in two years. Pakistan has refused to stop hangings despite mounting criticism by the human rights groups, the UN and the EU against implementation of death penalty. There are about 8,000 death row prisoners in Pakistan.