An elderly Pakistani mother is making an emotional appeal for authorities to halt the execution of her son, who was sentenced to death for a juvenile crime at age 14.

Shafqat Hussain was sentenced in 2004 by a court in the port city of Karachi after it found him guilty of killing another boy. Hussain's 87-year-old mother Makhni Begum on Saturday pleaded with the government to cancel the execution.

In a telephone interview from the Pakistani-controlled section of the disputed Kashmir territory, she insisted that Hussain was innocent. A Pakistani human right organization has also called for Hussain's execution to be halted due to his youthful age when the crime was committed.

Hussain is expected to be hanged at a jail in Karachi on March 19.