MUHAMMAD SARFARAZ Age at time of conviction: 17 Years on death row: 22 Status: Executed on 10 May 2016 Juvenile offender executed after 22 years on death row Muhammad Sarfaraz was arrested in 1993 at the age of 17 years and 3 months. During the course of his trial the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance had not been promulgated and thus the matter of his juvenility was not raised at the trial stage. Sarfaraz was convicted and sentenced to death on 21.01.1998. Following the passage of the JJSO in 2001, the President issued a notification granting special remission to juveniles sentenced to death prior to the JJSO. In 2008, the Punjab Home Secretary wrote a letter to the Superintendent of Sarfaraz’s jail about holding a juvenility inquiry for Sarfaraz, which was subsequently referred to the Sessions Court, Rawalpindi. During the inquiry, the file was misplaced by a member of the court staff and the juvenility inquiry was never conducted. The staff member was only reprimanded for this in 2012 when the senior most judge (Sessions Judge) of the Sessions Court wrote to the Additional Session Judge inquiring about the juvenility proceedings, but the Court erroneously concluded that it was no longer competent to conduct the inquiry. This decision was sent to the Punjab Home Department, as a consequence of which Sarfaraz’s mercy petition was dismissed. On 7 July 2015, the High Court upon learning that the Session's Court had misplaced the file directed it to "reconstruct it and "conclude the requisite inquiry" within 30 days. During the course of the inquiry the Session's Court dismissed the juvenility claim on the basis of conflicting documentary evidence in the form of a school record. Interestingly Sarfaraz's family maintains that he never enrolled in school. On 6 October 2015, Sarfaraz’s legal team challenged this inquiry before the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi. However, on 9 March 2016, after 13 hearings before the Lahore High Court in which the case was transferred back and forth from the single bench to the division bench, on account of a failure to decide the correct forum, the High Court dismissed this challenge, and, thereafter a further warrant for Sarfaraz’s execution was issued on 16 March 2016. Efforts by Sarfaraz’s lawyers to appeal this dismissal of his juvenility claim to the Supreme Court of Pakistan were deliberately frustrated by the jail authorities in Rawalpindi through obstructing their access to a necessary power of attorney from Sarfaraz; a requirement for proceedings before the Supreme Court. Sarfaraz’s Supreme Court appeal was subsequently rejected and he was executed after spending 22 years behind bars. Despite the strong case for his juvenility, which included government issued certificates, he was executed on 10 May 2016. Sarfaraz’s case speaks clearly about the failure of Pakistan’s juvenile justice system to accord the benefit of doubt to juvenile offenders as required under international law, particularly at the stage of age determination. Had Sarfaraz’s right to the benefit of doubt been respected he would have met a different outcome.