LAHORE: Rights activist Asma Jahangir has said executing a paraplegic, Abdul Basit, will be an inhuman act.

In a statement, she said 43-year-old Basit was likely to be executed in Faisalabad soon. He is paralysed down the waist and is on a wheelchair. His mother Parveen said she saw scars from ropes on Basit’s wrists when she met him recently.

Asma strongly condemned this act of officials and said civilised societies should treat a patient like a patient should be treated. “Basit is paralysed and officials should stop torturing him inside the jail. The decision to execute him should also be suspended, she demanded.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2015