PESHAWAR, July 22: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday summoned the chairman of a medical board which examined a juvenile offender who had been awarded death sentenced by a trial court.

The two-member bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Qaim Jan Khan, ordered presence of Dr Mohammad Saleem, the board chairman, on the next hearing.

The offender, Alhamdulillah Khan, is facing a complex situation as he was awarded capital punishment by a trial court and his appeal was dismissed by the high court. However, the superintendent of D.I.Khan prison converted his death sentence into life imprisonment in line with a general remission announced by President Musharraf for juvenile offenders in 2001.

The boy has been behind bars for over 10 years. Conflicting reports about his age have also complicated his case.

According to a report of the medical board constituted on the orders of the high court, the present age of the boy is 19 years, which means that he was only 10 years old when the offence was committed. The board observed that the offender appeared to be suffering from schizophrenia.

In his school-leaving certificate, the boy's date of birth is given as March 1, 1979. The trial court recorded his age as 35 years.

Advocate Astagfirullah appeared for the boy before the PHC bench and contended that he was a juvenile offender.

Zafar Abbas Zaidi appeared for the complainant party and contended that the medical board official should be summoned to find out how was the boy's age ascertained.

Khan was charged with killing a boy named Akbar Jan in the Umerzai area of Charssada on Jan 9, 1995. He was sentenced to death on July 6, 2000, by an additional district and sessions judge.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf issued a notification in December 2001 through which the death sentences of all juvenile offenders were converted into life imprisonment. In accordance with the notification, the prison superintendent removed Khan from the death cell on April 6.

An interesting situation arose when a two-member bench of the high court dismissed his appeal on Jan 22, 2003, and sent the confirmation of his death sentence to the prison authorities. When the superintendent came to know about it he sent a letter to the high court, informing it about the conversion of his death sentence into life imprisonment.

Following the information, the high court constituted a medical board for recording the age of the boy.

The mother of the boy told Dawn that his son was suffering from a mental ailment at the time of the incident and he was about 15 at that time. She said she did not know why the trial court recorded his age as 35 years.