Appeal filed against two hangings in Pakistan

Islamabad: The families of two convicts scheduled to be hanged in Pakistan Tuesday filed appeals Monday in the Sindh High Court.

The families of Muhammad Azam and Ataullah alias Abdullahof urged the court to suspend their death warrants, The News International reported.

The appeals were heard by a bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

Justice Ali asked the superintendent of Sindh how the date of execution was set for Dec 23 when legally it should have been Dec 26. The judge said the government was making a mockery of the law.

The lawyer for the families argued that a second review petition had been filed in the Supreme Court after all death penalty pleas were dismissed. He added that by issuing the death warrants, the anti-terrorism court had ignored the review petition pending in the Supreme Court.

The appeals called for death warrants to be suspended until the Supreme Court reached a decision on the review petition.

Since the massacre of over 140 students and teachers in a Peshawar school Dec 16, the government has begun to execute terrorists sentenced to death. So far six condemned men have been hanged.