ISLAMABAD - More than 7,360 persons, including 800 terrorists, are on death row and the appeals against them are lying in different courts and mercy petitions before the President of Pakistan.
Besides terror acts, there are 27 crimes, including murder, drug trafficking, rape, and blasphemy and kidnapping, that carry death penalty under Pakistani law.
According to the Ministry of Interior 2013 figures, out of the total 6,424 prisoners are in Punjab, 669 in Sindh, 183 Khyber Pukhtoonkhawa and 84 in Balochistan.
It says that total 5,569 appeals are pending against the death sentences in high courts throughout the country. Of the total, 4,981 are in the Lahore High Court, 457 in the Sindh High Court, 102 the Peshawar High Court and 29 in the Balochistan High Court.
Total 21 appeals are also pending in the Federal Shariat Court against the death penalty. Around 1,031 appeals against the orders of High Courts regarding death penalty are pending in the Supreme Court. Out of them, 893 are from the Punjab, 48 Sindh, 49 Khyber Pukhtoonkhawa and 41 of Balochistan.
Total 655 mercy petitions are also pending before the President of Pakistan. Out of them, 463 are from Punjab, 150 Sindh, 29 Khyber Pukhtoonkhawa and 13 Balochistan, while the President had granted stay against the execution of death sentence in 69 from Punjab, 6 Sindh and 3 from Khyber Pukhtoonkhawa.
Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), an NGO working on prisoners, says more than 800 death sentenced prisoners were tried as ‘terrorists’. In Sindh the proportion of defendants tried as ‘terrorists’ rises to 40 per cent of all death penalty cases. The JPP has compiled the death row prisoner data from 38 prisons across Pakistan.
Chief Justice for Pakistan Nasir ul Mulk had called a meeting of all chief justices of high courts and in-charge judges of anti terrorism courts to consider the different proposals regarding the expeditious disposal of cases under anti terrorism law on December 24.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on December lifted moratorium on death penalty but it will only be for the terror-related cases, while the legal experts say that it would remain intact for the civilian cases.
Barrister Zafarullah, senior advocate of Supreme Court of Pakistan, said there was a need to define the word of terrorism, because other cases like brutal murder are also tried in the Anti-Terrorism Court and considered the terror acts.
Barrister Zafarullah said the government and the judiciary should make plan for the people who are on death row in civilian cases. He said there were 158 people who already had undergone 18 years in prisons and were detained more than life imprisonment. He said the government should continue moratorium on death sentences in civilian cases.
President Asif Ali Zardari had placed a five-year moratorium on executions in June 2008. However, the hiatus was interrupted in November 2012 when the military executed a soldier who was found guilty of murder. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif once again suspended the use of death penalty even after the moratorium expired in June last year.