Pakistan lifts moratorium on death penalty

Islamabad, December 17

The Pakistani Prime Minister lifted a moratorium on the death penalty on Wednesday, a day after Taliban gunmen attacked a school, killing 132 students and nine teachers, a government spokesman said.

Pakistan began three days of mourning on Wednesday for the 141 people killed in the attack on the school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The bloodshed has shocked the nation and put pressure on the government to do more to tackle the Pakistani Taliban insurgency. Many people have called in the media for the death penalty to be restored.

“It was decided that this moratorium should be lifted. The Prime Minister approved,” said government spokesman Mohiuddin Wan, referring to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s approval of the decision by a ministerial committee.

“Black warrants will be issued within a day or two,” he said, referring to execution orders.

He did not give any details about who might be executed under such orders.

A moratorium on the death penalty was imposed in 2008 and only one execution has taken place since then.

There are believed to be more than 8,000 prisoners on death row in Pakistan, about 10 percent convicted of offences labelled “terrorism”, said Justice Project Pakistan, a legal aid group.

“Terrorism” has a very broad definition under Pakistani law.

About 17,000 cases of “terrorism” are pending in special courts.

Justice Project Pakistan released a report on Wednesday saying that those convicted of terrorism were often tortured into confessions or denied lawyers, and that recent crackdowns had not stopped militant attacks.

“Swathes of defendants whose crimes bear no relation to terrorism have been sentenced to death following extremely unfair trials - whilst terrorist attacks continue unabated,” the group said.

Sharif vows to ‘clean this region of terrorism’

Pakistan and Afghanistan have decided to launch fresh operations against terrorists in the wake of Peshawar school massacre by the Taliban as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed to “clean this region of terrorism.”

 “Our aim is to clean this region of terrorism. Not only Pakistan and Afghanistan but indeed this entire region should be cleaned of terrorism,” he told an all-party conference.

His statement came in the aftermath of the Peshawar school massacre in which at least 132 students and nine staffers were killed by Taliban militants and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call that India and Pakistan and humanity should join hands to comprehensively defeat terrorism.

“Yesterday’s incident is extremely tragic,” Sharif said.

“These sacrifices will not go waste and we all want complete elimination of terrorism from Pakistan,” he said.

“We must not forget these scenes... The way they (militants) left bullet holes in the bodies of innocent kids, the way they tore apart their faces with bullets,” he said.

Sharif said he spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani last night to discuss how both countries could do more to fight terrorism.

The two leaders agreed to launch fresh operations on their respective sides of the border, he added. — Reuters/PTI