ISLAMABAD - Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan informed the Senate on Wednesday that the government was not considering any proposal to commute death sentence into life imprisonment.
Responding to a question, the minister said a total of 13,223 death penalties were announced across the country since 2002, of which 501 were consummated.
The minister said that since year 2002 the law enforcement agencies had arrested a total of 6,149 terrorists. He added that 12,404 persons were killed while 26,881 injured in different terrorism incidents during the same period across the country.
Nisar said a national policy on missing persons was being formulated by the government while a task force in this regard had also been formed. Five meetings of the task force had already been held and its final report would be presented before both the houses of the parliament, he added. To another question, the minister informed the house that 413 incidents of terrorism, including suicide attacks, took place in the country since June this year. He said it was the duty of the provincial governments to maintain law and order in their provinces, however, the federal government was providing all-out assistance to them to curb the menace of terrorism.
A 2008 moratorium on capital punishment imposed by the Pakistan Peoples Party’s government expired on June 30 and the country was due to execute two jailed militants in August under the new government led by Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz. But reports soon emerged that the government scrapped plans to reinstate the death penalty following threats by militants to step up attacks in retaliation.
The moratorium drew praise because of concerns its courts and police were too inept to ensure the accused a fair trial. Pakistan did, however, break its own rules in 2012 when it executed a convicted murderer and a former army serviceman.