LAHORE: A report revealed that Pakistan has executed 465 prisoners since lifting a moratorium on death penalty in 2014, making it the “fifth most prolific executioner” in the world. Justice Project Pakistan said the use of death penalty has failed to curb crime, including terrorism, and instead is exceedingly used as a political tool, sometimes even as a solution to jail overcrowding. In its report, it said, “It is a high number of the executions that made Pakistan 'fifth most prolific executioner' in the world, following China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.”
“The government is mostly hanging terrorists through military courts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and through anti-terrorism courts in Sindh,” the report said. The organisation ran a data analysis to find that a total of 465 prisoners have been executed in the past two-and-a-half years since the country's moratorium on executions was lifted. JPP said the Pak government justifies lifting of the moratorium by claiming it is necessary to deter terrorist threat to the country.
JPP Executive Director Sarah Belal said, “Pakistan's troubling and continued use of the death penalty has continuously fallen short of meeting its international human rights commitments and fair trial standards, as well as our own domestic laws. The death penalty is not an effective tool to curb militancy and crime.” She said it is time for the stakeholders to commit to genuine reforms in criminal justice system, and until it is done, to restore the moratorium on the death penalty.
Pakistan lifted a self-imposed moratorium on death penalty in terror related cases in December 2014 after Taliban militants massacred at least 150 people, mostly students, at an army-run school in Peshawar.
