LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has summoned the record of the trial court on the appeal of Imran Ali against his conviction in rape and murder case of seven-year-old Zainab of Kasur.

On Monday, a division bench comprising Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan summoned the case record on Tuesday.

In the appeal, submitted to the LHC by the jail administration, the convict Imran Ali pleaded that he had confessed to his crime and saved the precious time of the trial court. He said that the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) rushed the proceedings and failed to adhere to legal formalities.

In his jail-appeal, the convict further added that in developed countries the courts treated criminals with lenience if they made a confession but the trial court did not show lenience in his case. The  prisoner commended the court to set aside his death penalty and also commute other sentences.

On Feb 17, an anti-terrorism court had awarded death sentence on four counts to Ali following a four-day trial conducted in the central jail. The convict was also separately given life imprisonment and a seven-year jail term in addition to the death penalty.

The punishment on the basis of forensic, material and circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution in addition to the confession made by Imran.

The convict had initially denied the charges against him and decide to contest the trial, however, he implore guilty the next day. The court had provided him with a state counsel after his private counsel refused to further defend him following the confession.