Capital punishment: Eight death row convicts hanged in Punjab

Executions of four others were halted by court stay orders, compromises deals

LAHORE: At least eight convicts on death row were hanged in five separate jails of Punjab on Tuesday.

The execution of four other death row convicts was halted in the wake of court injunctions and compromise deals with the victims or their families.

Death row prisoners Muhammad Iqbal and Zahid Mehmood were hanged in the central jails of Dera Ghazi Khan and Attock, respectively, while the life of death row convict Saeed Ahmad was spared following a compromise agreement. Ahmad was facing execution in the central jail of Dera Ghazi Khan due to a compromise.

Convicts Gul Jahan and Qaisar Abbas Shah also escaped execution in the central jails of Mianwali and Gujranwala, respectively in the wake of a court injunction.

Two death row convicts, Muhammad Azam and Mukhtar Ahmad, were hanged in Gujarat district jail. The two men had killed a couple over a property dispute in 2004.

Two other death row convicts were hanged in the central jail of Multan. Manzoor Hussain had murdered his wife in 2003 after she sought separation from him while Muhammad Tahir had killed one person in 2003 over personal enmity. The execution of a third convict Abdul Wahid was halted due to compromise.

Two death row convicts were executed in the central jail Bahawalpur. Death row convict Aziz ur Rehman had murdered three persons in 2002 over a petty matter, while Akhtar Ali had gunned down a woman for putting up resistance during robbery in 2002.

The moratorium on the death penalty was lifted by the prime minister on March 10, 2015.

Supporters of the death penalty argue that the death penalty is the only effective way to deal with the scourge of militancy in the country while critics argue that the legal system is unjust, citing rampant police torture, poor representation for victims and unfair trials.

The United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on Pakistan to reimpose its moratorium on the death penalty.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th,  2015.