No convict executed in over four years

None of the death row convicts in any prison in the country has been executed in the last four and a half years.

Similarly, no convict languishing in Adiala jail has been hanged in the past five years due to the non-issuance of death warrants by relevant courts, including the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) and district and sessions courts.

Several additional and sessions courts continue to award death sentences to the convicts of murder and kidnapping for ransom but no one has been hanged for years now.

Additional District and Sessions Courts of Rawalpindi district, Special Anti-Terrorism Courts and Anti-Narcotics Court have awarded death sentences to a total of 22 persons from January 1 to July 25, 2022.

Of 265 death row prisoners languishing in Adiala jail, appeals of 140 prisoners are being heard in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench and the Islamabad High Court, while appeals of 115 other convicts are pending in the Supreme Court. Similarly, appeals of nine inmates against their death sentences had been rejected by the Supreme Court.

Adiala jail administration sources said that the jail authorities strictly follow the death warrants issued by the courts. They said that whenever someone receives a death warrant, the convict is executed according to the specified date. The sources confirmed that no such death warrants have been issued in the last over four years.

According to Human Rights Association Vice-President Masood-ul Hasan Shah, Pakistan is under pressure from several European countries to refrain from awarding death penalties to convicts. He said that another reason for the delay in execution of the death sentence is that it takes 12 to 15 years for a death penalty case to reach the Supreme Court.

Due to excessive delay in the justice system, the aggrieved parties get softened and consequently, about 60 to 70 per cent of murder cases are settled between the plaintiffs and the defendants within two to eight years.

According to a survey, in the past 5 years, 55 per cent of murder cases have been withdrawn by the plaintiffs after they had an out-of-court settlement with the defending parties, Hasan said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2022.