Not even children can escape the death penalty in Pakistan

But with no papers on him at the time, and his family thousands of kilometres away, officials put his age down as 23, and he was tried as an adult, convicted and sentenced to hang.

As a minor at the time of the crime, Hussain should have escaped the death penalty.

His case dragged on and in 2008 the country declared a moratorium on executions, making his age a less pressing matter for his lawyers and family. But in December, that moratorium was lifted after Taleban gunmen killed 136 children at an army-run school in Peshawar.

Hussain’s case starting moving through the system, as public and media attention grew, and cries started to go out for his sentence to be commuted. Late on Wednesday, he was ordered to change into white clothes for his hanging, and to write his will.

But at the 11th hour, President Mamnoon Hussain ordered the execution stayed for 72 hours. The family had produced the birth certificate on Wednesday, and a DNA test to determine his real age was under way.

The case highlights flaws in the country’s legal system for minors, human rights groups and children’s advocates say.

Both the defence team and judges should have determined his age and applied the 2000 Juvenile Justice System Ordinance to Hussain’s case, says lawyer Sajjad Cheema.

Now that his true age is clear, “he must be granted the benefits of the law, which says a maximum of a life sentence should be given to juvenile offenders”, he says.

Human rights organisations have further questioned the verdict, alleging Hussain was tortured in custody. He was convicted by an anti-terrorism court and had already spent more than a decade in jail when the government announced it would hang him in January. Rights groups argued a miscarriage of justice had taken place in his case, prompting the government to halt the hanging and Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan to announce an investigation into the allegations. Khan told parliament on Tuesday that the inquiry found all legal procedures had been completed and the execution could go ahead.

“The convict was awarded a death sentence for murdering a child and has exhausted all legal avenues to get his death sentence reversed,” the minister said. 

Hamza Hassan, of the Society for Protection of the Rights of Children, says the laws to protect underage suspects need better implementation across the board.

“The law demands separate jails, special transportation vans, separate trial of juveniles and free legal aid to them, but these provisions are frequently violated,” along with the rights and dignity of the country’s 1,450 underage prisoners, he says.

Cheema notes that the legal system also suffers from a legacy left by Britain, which ruled the country until 1947. For example, in order to control dissent, the age for criminal liability was for a long time fixed at 7, he says. An amendment to the Penal Code was drafted in 2009, raising the age to 10 or 12, but has not yet made it to parliament, Somoro says.

In the meantime, Pakistan’s minors are in practice not even afforded the rights they do have, says Hassan.

“The fact of the matter is that juvenile justice is on the books, but juveniles are treated as adults. The conviction of Hussain is proof, because he was not tried under juvenile laws.”