Muhammad Iqbal was only 17 years old in 1998 when he was arrested and consequently sentenced to death a year later.

In 2000, Pakistan passed the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), making it illegal for juveniles to be handed the death sentence. A presidential notification of 2001 subsequently provided remission to all juveniles sentenced prior to the ordinance. However, Iqbal continued to languish on death row despite his proven juvenility. In fact, a letter written by the Punjab government to the Lahore High Court in 2003 listed Iqbal as one of the prisoners entitled to remission. 

Two decades later, the Lahore High Court has finally acknowledged that Iqbal was wronged and did not deserve to be on death row. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in February 2020 and Iqbal was released from jail on 30 June 2020 after it was established that he has already served a life term.