Capital punishment in Pakistan

Capital punishment is legal in Pakistan. There had been a moratorium on executions since 2008, but the moratorium was lifted for terrorism related cases as of 16 December 2014, following the massacre of 132 students and 9 members of staff of the Army Public School and Degree College Peshawar. On 19 December 2014, Pakistan executed two prisoners convicted of offences unrelated to the Peshawar massacre.[1] As of July 2016, Pakistan has executed over 400 death row prisoners since 2014 Peshawar school massacre.[2][3][4][5][6]

At least 241 people were sentenced to death in Pakistan in 2005, and at least 31 were executed – the fifth highest number in the world. Pakistan ranked fifth (total cases – not per capita) after the People's Republic of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.[7] The moratorium expired on 30 June 2013 and the government announced it had no plan to extend it. The government stated there will be no general amnesty for the convicts waiting for execution.[8] As of 4 July 2013, Amnesty International estimated there are more than 8,000 prisoners on death row.[9] The European Union (EU) has sharply reacted over lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty in Pakistan, and has demanded its immediate restoration, which had been in place since 2008.[10]

Amnesty International recorded 13 executions in 1999, while the moratorium was intact.[11] and it reports these execution were carried out by the lower courts. However it is not at all apparent what the report means by "lower courts" as only one Trial Court, the Court of Sessions, has the power to award capital punishment (Section 31(2) Code of Criminal Procedure and that Court generally tries only the most serious crimes. All death sentences have to be confirmed by the High Court (Sections 31(25), 374 and 376 Code of Criminal Procedure).[12]

Controversially Pakistan was one of only eight countries in the world (China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United States and Yemen), that since 1990 executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of committing a crime. Pakistan along with the United States and Yemen have now raised the minimum age to 18 in law to be eligible for execution.[13]

Hanging is the only legal method of execution (Section 368 Code of Criminal Procedure).

2008 moratorium

The Constitution of Pakistan empowers the President to pardon or remit convictions. Pakistan Peoples Party government whose former chairperson Benazir Bhutto was a well known opponent of death penalty came to the power in March 2008 and installed its President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari on 9 September 2008. Who upon taking charge of the office issued an indefinite moratorium of prisoners on death row. Pakistan's moratorium ended on 14 November 2014 when Mr. Muhammed Hussain, a soldier was hanged for murder at Central Jail Mianwali.[14]

On 17 December 2014, after the Peshawar school attack, in which the Pakistani Taliban murdered 132 children and at least nine others, the authorities announced the moratorium would be lifted for terrorism cases.[15] Executions immediately resumed, with dozens more following.[16]

Finally on 10 March 2015, Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the use of capital punishment in the country entirely.[17]

On 28 April 2015, according to Amnesty International, Pakistan carried out its 100th execution since the moratorium was ended for the death penalty in December 2014.

On 14 June, the Pakistan government announced a temporary reprieve for death row prisoners during the month of Ramadan. So far the government having executed about 180 convicts in 6 months since the Peshawar school attack. Executions to continue after Ramadan.

On 5 August 2015, Pakistan hanged Shafqat Hussain in Karachi who was convicted of killing a 7-year-old boy in 2004. The execution was condemned by Amnesty International as Hussain's lawyers argued he was only 14 at the time and was tortured into confessing to the murder. The following day, an official from the interior ministry confirmed that 200th inmates had been executed since the moratorium ended in December 2014.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Pakistan resumes executions after Peshawar school attack". BBC News.
  2. ↑ "Britons face execution as Pakistan prepares to reduce numbers on death row".
  3. ↑ "Pakistan's Hypocritical Season of Mercy".
  4. ↑ "Eight more hanged in jails across Punjab".
  5. ↑ "Reprieve – Pakistan executions top 200". Reprieve.
  6. ↑ "The Death Penalty in Pakistan". deathpenaltyworldwide.org.
  7. ↑ AIUK: Pakistan- Spate of imminent executions in wake of Mirza Hussain case Archived 15 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ dawn.com/2013/07/05/no-general-amnesty-for-death-row-convicts-govt/
  9. ↑ "Pakistan: Thousands of prisoners at risk if government resumes executions". Amnesty International.
  10. ↑ Haider, Mateen (24 December 2014). "EU opposes removal of moratorium on death penalty in Pakistan". Dawn.
  11. ↑ "Amnesty International: Death Penalty News September 2000". Amnesty International. Archived from the original on 13 November 2007. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  12. ↑ "Pakistan code of criminal procedure" (PDF). Max-Planck-Institute. Archived from the original (pdf) on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  13. ↑ "Amnesty International: Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty". Amnesty International. Archived from the original on 21 April 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  14. ↑ "Capital punishment in Pakistan". Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Archived from the original on 2 December 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  15. ↑ "Pakistan lifts death penalty moratorium after Taliban school attack". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Associated Press. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  16. ↑ "Pakistan death row inmates face imminent execution". BBC News.
  17. ↑ Sim, Shaun (10 March 2015). "Pakistan Ends Death Penalty Moratorium". International Business Times. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
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