Pak court stays execution as inmate seeks less painful method

Pakistan's Peshawar High Court today stayed the execution of a murder convict who had sought "less painful" method and claimed in his petition that hanging was "un-Islamic and unconstitutional".
The court directed the Islamic Ideology Council -- a constitutional body in Pakistan responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic issues to the government -- and the Ministry of Defence to submit their response in the case.
Jan Bahadur, in his petition, had stated that the present mode of execution, which is hanging, was "un-Islamic and unconstitutional" and requested for a "less painful" method.
A two-member bench of the high court comprising Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Abdur Shakoor stayed the execution after hearing the petition of the condemned prisoner, the Express Tribune reported.

In his plea, Bahadur said time had changed with science and technology making great strides, and therefore the court should direct the authorities to devise a less painful method for death row inmates.
His lawyer said there could be a number of other methods that may be a legally permissible practice for execution.
Bahadur, who is imprisoned in Haripur Central Prison in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was sentenced to death by an additional district and sessions judge on April 7, 2000 in a murder case of 1993. His clemency appeal has already been rejected.