NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD - Rights groups Saturday condemned Pakistan’s decision to hang two convicted militants in its first executions for six years.
A prominent human rights watchdog group urged Pakistan to stop executions of death-row prisoners for terrorism-related offences.
Pakistan described the bloody rampage in Peshawar on Tuesday as its own “9/11”, saying it was a game changer in its fight against terror.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif relinquished the six-year ban on the death penalty in terror-related cases two days after the school attack, with two militants convicted of separate terrorism offences the first to face the noose.
“Pakistan’s government has chosen to indulge in vengeful blood-lust instead of finding and prosecuting those responsible for the horrific Peshawar attack,” Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “The government’s death penalty spree is a craven politicised reaction to the Peshawar killings that will do nothing to bring the attackers to justice.”
Human Rights Watch said it opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty. Pakistan’s use of the death penalty is inconsistent with international human rights law, it said.
“Misusing military courts, a resumption of executions, and denying media access to conflict areas is a recipe for renewed human rights violations rather than a rights-respecting response to militant atrocities,” Kine said, citing media reports about moves to establish military courts. “The Pakistan government should respect the memory of the Peshawar massacre victims by upholding the rule of law for which the attackers showed such contempt.”
“This is a cynical reaction from the government. It masks a failure to deal with the core issue highlighted by the Peshawar attack, namely the lack of effective protection for civilians in north-west Pakistan,” Amnesty said about Friday’s executions.
The Pakistan government should immediately halt carrying out death penalty, said the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
“Instead of lifting the moratorium on death penalty and executing the convicts on death row, the Pakistan government should do all it can, in accordance with the international law, to bring to justice those responsible for the slaughter of innocent people in Peshawar,” said ICJ Asia Director Sam Zarifi in a statement received in Islamabad. “These executions are a poorly thought-out response to public demands for revenge and can do nothing to prevent future attacks or ensure justice for the victims,” he said.
“The attack on the school in Peshawar was horrific and brutal, and Pakistan must ensure that such attacks are prevented in future by implementing a comprehensive counterterrorism policy in line with the Pakistani Constitution and its obligations under international human rights law. Executing all those convicted under Pakistan’s flawed counterterrorism laws, following trials that fell short of international standards of fairness, dodges the real issues confronting Pakistan in its fight against terrorism,” added Zarifi.
“The Pakistan government should restore its moratorium on death penalty; instead, it should focus on an effective, realistic and legal response to the very real threat posed by armed groups to the Pakistani people.”
Pakistan resumed executions a day after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution for the fifth time since 2007 emphasising that the use of death penalty undermines human dignity and calling on those countries that maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on it with a view to its abolition.
An overwhelming majority of 117 UN member states voted in favour of a worldwide moratorium on executions as a step towards abolition of the death penalty.
“The ICJ opposes capital punishment in all cases without exception. The death penalty constitutes a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment,” he concluded.