Corporal Punishment: Petition in SC against death penalty filed

There are 7,046 prisoners on death row, says Barrister Zafarullah.

LAHORE:

A petition seeking a stay order against execution of death penalty was filed in the Supreme Court on Friday.

Muhammad Yaqoob Bhatti’s counsel Barrister Zafarullah filed the petition at the Lahore registry of the Supreme Court.

Zafarullah said he had filed the petition for a stay order on July 13 in Supreme Court but so far, there had been no hearings. He asked the court to fix a hearing for the petition by August 19.

Zafarullah said on July 11, the new government had announced it would execute the prisoners on death row.

He said the previous government had not executed any prisoner on death row and many mercy petitions had been accepted.

He said in many countries rehabilitative imprisonment for serious crimes was the norm.

He said the judges’ were also divided over death penalty.

He said victims of the capital crime could be compensated in many ways.

He said most of the death row prisoners all over the world were poor people who could not hire the services of top lawyers. He said often state counsels mishandled cases.

He said there were 7,046 prisoners on death row. He said that according to Law Ministry figures, 5,378 appeals were pending in high courts and 1,031 appeals against death penalty were pending in the Supreme Court.

He said out of the 7,046 prisoners, 4,081 were in the Punjab, 266 in Sindh, 102 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 29 in Balochistan.

He said 532 petitions were pending before the president and six appeals were pending in the General Headquarters.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2013.