Karachi--The brother of a Pakistani man condemned to death as a teenager spoke Thursday of his relief after the president granted a stay of execution.
Shafqat Hussain, convicted of killing a seven-year-old boy in Karachi in 2004, was just hours away from the gallows when the delay order was given late on Wednesday.
The case has attracted international attention as Hussain was apparently only 15 years old at the time of the killing and rights campaigners say he did not have a fair trial.
Hussain's brother Gul Zaman described going to bid him farewell in jail in the southern metropolis of Karachi late on Wednesday, only to be told of the temporary reprieve.
"Shafqat was looking worried. I could see the despair on his face, his tears were rolling as he spoke to me in a very low voice," Zaman told AFP by phone.
"He said: 'Tell mother not to worry. Instead pray for me, tell her that I am innocent'."
Late on Wednesday the presidency ordered a 30-day stay of execution, but Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told parliament on Thursday the delay was only for 72 hours.
Pakistan has hanged 48 convicts since restarting executions in the wake of a Taliban massacre at a school in December, angering rights activists and alarming some foreign countries.
Hussain had been due to face the noose on January 14, but the government halted the execution in the face of protests and ordered an investigation.
But an anti-terrorism court in Karachi last week ordered the hanging to go ahead -- until Wednesday's 11th-hour intervention.
Zaman said he left his brother after midnight, with only around five hours left until the hanging was due.
"He hugged me very gently and held me for a very brief moment. He then left me, turned around, his head was bowed as one of the prison officials brought the execution dress," Zaman said.
"I left the cell and as I was leaving the prison I was told that the execution has been delayed, I could not believe it."
Speaking in the National Assembly on Thursday, interior minister Khan said there was conflicting evidence about Hussain's true age.
A birth certificate has appeared in media reports, but there is no proof that it is correct, Khan said, while a jail doctor declared Hussain to be 20 in 2004.
Exact birth records are not always kept in Pakistan, particularly for people from poor families like Hussain's.
AFP
