Islamabad: The Islamabad High (IHC) today reserved a judgment on an appeal filed by death-row convict Shafqat Hussain till Monday.

Counsel for the convict, Dr Tariq Hassan, while arguing before the court said that he was not challenging the Supreme Court verdict against his client, but he was saying that it was a matter of a juvenile case, as, according to him, when his client was handed down punishment, he was underage.

He said that it was the responsibility of the government to issue birth certificates and national identity cards, which had not been issued to his client. The counsel for the convict also produced some sections of the Human Rights and Juvenile Ordinance 2000 and according to which, children aged 18 and below could not be hanged. The judge countered the counsel saying that your arguments tantamount to issuing licenses to underage children to carry out suicide attacks. The court asked the counsel for the death row convict, whether the president could commute a punishment without the consent of the aggrieved party.

The public prosecutor told the court that the counsel for the convict wanted to reopen the whole case. He said that the convict’s counsel, if wanted, should be allowed to approach the Supreme Court to reopen the case.

The judge observed that if every convict were allowed to file pleas for reopening a case, it would set a bad precedent. The judge reserved the judgment till Monday.