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ISLAMABAD: Capital punishment, the major deterrence against heinous crimes like terrorism, murder, kidnapping for ransom, gang rape etc, has been informally suspended in Pakistan since late 2008 as during these years almost 50,000 persons have been murdered but only one person has been hanged, that too on the intervention of the Pakistan Army.
Only in Punjab and Sindh more than 700 cases of capital punishment, already confirmed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, have been withheld merely because either the federal government is sitting on the mercy appeals or has stayed the execution of the convicts.
A government spokesman, however, told The News that there has been a moratorium on the execution of capital punishment, which has now been lifted and for the same reason a murder convict was hanged on Thursday. The spokesman, Fawad Chaudhry, PM’s adviser, said that the government wanted to do away with the capital punishment but it has now changed its mind.
On Thursday a convict, reportedly an ISI official who had murdered his colleague, has been hanged in Mianwali jail but, according to a source, he was sentenced to death by the field court martial and in such cases the Presidential power under Article 45 of the Constitution does not apply. Fawad Ch, however, contested that every execution require nod of the president.
Hundreds of those whose death sentences are not being executed by the present government include terrorists, murderers, rapists and others. Interior ministry sources said that following foreign pressures execution of such convicts has been suspended for the last four years despite repeated requests by the provincial and federal authorities that these executions should be carried out.
Although certain foreign funded NGOs are campaigning to invalidate death sentence from the country’s laws, such a move would be un-Islamic and against the teachings of Quran and Sunnah.
Additionally, it is said that doing away with the capital punishment would lead to rise of heinous crimes in the country, which is already witnessing worsening crime with every passing day due to politicised police, poor investigations, ineffective prosecution and slow court proceedings.
While the interior ministry sources say that there are hundreds of convicted murderers, terrorists etc whose execution awaits government’s nod, the Punjab government sources says that the federal government is sitting on the mercy appeals of 468 convicts presently in different jails of the province while 48 other such convicts’ execution has been stayed by the federal government despite rejection of their mercy petitions.
Sindh government sources said that such convicts are around 70 in Karachi prison whereas the total number of such prisoners throughout Sindh is around 200. According to the Punjab government sources 46 persons out of 468 are terrorists. On the other hand, 48 mercy appeals were rejected by the presidency but a stay has been granted on the execution of all these death sentences by the President.
According to the federal government’s official figures, a total of 13,860 cases of murders were registered in 2011 and 13,190 in 2010. Some 12,059 persons were killed in 2008. The figures for 2012 are feared to be too high, as Karachi has seen record killings this year - 1800 according to some estimates. Despite tall claims of government and police, there is no respite in the targeted killings in Karachi, as according to the data of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), targeted killings and other crimes have claimed at least 1,257 lives in Karachi during first six months of the present year.
According to statistics compiled by the HRCP Karachi chapter, a total of 1,257 people were killed in the city during first six months of 2012, with 972 falling prey to targeted killings, which is 77 percent of the total killings, on different grounds including sectarian, personal enmities, bomb blasts, Lyari gang war and abduction. The figure for the first six months of 2011 was 1,138.
Amid mounting incidents of terrorism, ineffective intelligence, hopeless policing, poor prosecution and lack of useful counter-terror strategy, the government is trying to shift the blame on courts, conveniently ignoring its own lethargy in punishing the terrorists.
Because of poor police investigations and ineffective prosecution, the courts set free a large number of accused terrorists for want of evidence. A report of the Rawalpindi district prosecutor, reported by The News, showed the pathetic performance of police, intelligence agencies, indifference of the concerned military officials and public prosecutors, which led to the release of the suspects involved in the otherwise high profile murder of a serving Surgeon General, Lt General Mushtaq Beg, in a Rawalpindi terrorist attack.
For similar reasons, the accused involved in certain other high profile cases including Marriott Hotel attack, failed attempt on the life of ousted dictator Musharraf, too, have been released by the courts. Without keeping their own house in order, some provincial ministers and federal authorities have been trying to pass the buck to the judiciary.
However, despite poor conviction rate, it is believed the pronounced execution of the convicted terrorist and those involved in heinous crimes help create much-needed deterrence against crime. Generally, the people believe that the terrorists and criminals are having a field day in today’s Pakistan as they freely choose their target, hit and kill innumerable innocents and never get caught. And those caught, the general belief is, are released by the courts for want of evidence.
Some mercy petitions in cases where the condemned prisoners were given death sentence under ATA, are pending since 2005. In other cases, such mercy petitions are pending for many years, even more than a decade.
Fawad Chaudhry, when approached, said that Pakistan besides China and Iran has most condemned prisoners though the number of executions here is less. He said that the courts give death sentence in routine murder cases whereas capital punishment should be given in exceptional cases.
He said that due to flaw in our criminal justice system a convict of capital punishment is executed after spending several years in jail, meaning thereby that before execution he also undergoes life imprisonment.
Only in Punjab and Sindh more than 700 cases of capital punishment, already confirmed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, have been withheld merely because either the federal government is sitting on the mercy appeals or has stayed the execution of the convicts.
A government spokesman, however, told The News that there has been a moratorium on the execution of capital punishment, which has now been lifted and for the same reason a murder convict was hanged on Thursday. The spokesman, Fawad Chaudhry, PM’s adviser, said that the government wanted to do away with the capital punishment but it has now changed its mind.
On Thursday a convict, reportedly an ISI official who had murdered his colleague, has been hanged in Mianwali jail but, according to a source, he was sentenced to death by the field court martial and in such cases the Presidential power under Article 45 of the Constitution does not apply. Fawad Ch, however, contested that every execution require nod of the president.
Hundreds of those whose death sentences are not being executed by the present government include terrorists, murderers, rapists and others. Interior ministry sources said that following foreign pressures execution of such convicts has been suspended for the last four years despite repeated requests by the provincial and federal authorities that these executions should be carried out.
Although certain foreign funded NGOs are campaigning to invalidate death sentence from the country’s laws, such a move would be un-Islamic and against the teachings of Quran and Sunnah.
Additionally, it is said that doing away with the capital punishment would lead to rise of heinous crimes in the country, which is already witnessing worsening crime with every passing day due to politicised police, poor investigations, ineffective prosecution and slow court proceedings.
While the interior ministry sources say that there are hundreds of convicted murderers, terrorists etc whose execution awaits government’s nod, the Punjab government sources says that the federal government is sitting on the mercy appeals of 468 convicts presently in different jails of the province while 48 other such convicts’ execution has been stayed by the federal government despite rejection of their mercy petitions.
Sindh government sources said that such convicts are around 70 in Karachi prison whereas the total number of such prisoners throughout Sindh is around 200. According to the Punjab government sources 46 persons out of 468 are terrorists. On the other hand, 48 mercy appeals were rejected by the presidency but a stay has been granted on the execution of all these death sentences by the President.
According to the federal government’s official figures, a total of 13,860 cases of murders were registered in 2011 and 13,190 in 2010. Some 12,059 persons were killed in 2008. The figures for 2012 are feared to be too high, as Karachi has seen record killings this year - 1800 according to some estimates. Despite tall claims of government and police, there is no respite in the targeted killings in Karachi, as according to the data of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), targeted killings and other crimes have claimed at least 1,257 lives in Karachi during first six months of the present year.
According to statistics compiled by the HRCP Karachi chapter, a total of 1,257 people were killed in the city during first six months of 2012, with 972 falling prey to targeted killings, which is 77 percent of the total killings, on different grounds including sectarian, personal enmities, bomb blasts, Lyari gang war and abduction. The figure for the first six months of 2011 was 1,138.
Amid mounting incidents of terrorism, ineffective intelligence, hopeless policing, poor prosecution and lack of useful counter-terror strategy, the government is trying to shift the blame on courts, conveniently ignoring its own lethargy in punishing the terrorists.
Because of poor police investigations and ineffective prosecution, the courts set free a large number of accused terrorists for want of evidence. A report of the Rawalpindi district prosecutor, reported by The News, showed the pathetic performance of police, intelligence agencies, indifference of the concerned military officials and public prosecutors, which led to the release of the suspects involved in the otherwise high profile murder of a serving Surgeon General, Lt General Mushtaq Beg, in a Rawalpindi terrorist attack.
For similar reasons, the accused involved in certain other high profile cases including Marriott Hotel attack, failed attempt on the life of ousted dictator Musharraf, too, have been released by the courts. Without keeping their own house in order, some provincial ministers and federal authorities have been trying to pass the buck to the judiciary.
However, despite poor conviction rate, it is believed the pronounced execution of the convicted terrorist and those involved in heinous crimes help create much-needed deterrence against crime. Generally, the people believe that the terrorists and criminals are having a field day in today’s Pakistan as they freely choose their target, hit and kill innumerable innocents and never get caught. And those caught, the general belief is, are released by the courts for want of evidence.
Some mercy petitions in cases where the condemned prisoners were given death sentence under ATA, are pending since 2005. In other cases, such mercy petitions are pending for many years, even more than a decade.
Fawad Chaudhry, when approached, said that Pakistan besides China and Iran has most condemned prisoners though the number of executions here is less. He said that the courts give death sentence in routine murder cases whereas capital punishment should be given in exceptional cases.
He said that due to flaw in our criminal justice system a convict of capital punishment is executed after spending several years in jail, meaning thereby that before execution he also undergoes life imprisonment.
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