SC urges government to minimise detention period for death row prisoners

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has urged both federal and provincial governments to reconsider policies and enact or amend existing laws to align with international standards, aiming to minimise the duration of death row prisoners' detention in death cells.

In a nine-page judgment authored by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, the court highlighted the prolonged and often inhumane conditions faced by death row inmates, noting that many prisoners remain in death cells for years, sometimes even decades, due to delays in the judicial process and subsequent execution of sentences.

The ruling came during the hearing of a criminal review petition filed by Ghulam Shabbir, a convict who has been imprisoned for 34 years, that included 24 years spent in a death cell.

The Supreme Court partly allowed the review petition, converting Shabbir’s death sentence to life imprisonment, citing the prolonged delay as a factor that should not lead to double punishment.

Justice Mandokhail emphasised that the delays in executing death sentences effectively punish convicts twice for the same crime, which is neither permissible under Pakistani law nor under the injunctions of Islam.

The court also referenced international standards, including the United Nations’ Nelson Mandela Rules, which state that the conditions of imprisonment should not serve as additional punishment.

The judgment further called on the government to update outdated prison laws and ensure that they are implemented in a manner that respects the fundamental rights of all prisoners, particularly those on death row.

In view of the judgment, convicted person Ghulam Shabbir will be released from jail after 34 years of imprisonment as he completed his life sentence.