Officials from Pakistan are all set to resume executions for death penalty offences after a temporary ban was levied and has been lifted. Terror convicts who have exhausted all appeals process and of those whose clemency has been rejected will now face an execution.
Pakistan had suspended the executions for seven years until some resumed post the infamous Peshawar School massacre in December 2014. Human rights groups said that there are more than 8,000 people are on death row in Pakistan out of which 1,000 have lost the appeals and also had their clemency petitions rejected.
IIyas Khan from BBC in Islamabad said that it is still not clear why the moratorium has been lifted. The recent move will lift the seven year but has been criticised by the human rights activists law firm. Sarah Belal, the executive director at the human rights firm said, “We’ve seen time and time again that there is immeasurable injustice in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, with a rampant culture of police torture, inadequate counsel and unfair trials”.
Belal added that despite knowing the fact, the government has brought back the capital punishment. Authorities have hanged more than 20 prisoners who were convicted on terror related charges and partially began the executions in December 2014.
Photo Credits: aljazeera
