Capital punishment: 23 terror convicts among 151 hanged

Adiala Jail carried out highest number of executions across the country

LAHORE:

Since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted five months ago, at least 151 people have been executed, but only 23 of them were convicted of terrorism charge.

The rest of 114 have been hanged for dacoity, kidnapping for ransom, rape and murder for personal enmity in 21 jails across the country, according to information collected by The Express Tribune.

A former member of the Lahore High Court Bar Association Rabiya Bajwa feels the government lifted the moratorium on executions to divert attention from the real issue of terrorism. She says people are being hanged over personal issues and no real terrorist has been executed.

“What the government should do is, arrest real terrorists, establish cases against them and give them exemplary punishment. Because of the failure of the government, terrorists always go scot-free.”

Among those executed for terrorist activities, 11 were tried under the Anti-Terrorism Act, while 12 were hanged after being punished by Field General Court Martial. Eight people were executed for the assassination attempt on former president General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf and one person for the attack outside the US Consulate in Karachi. Another person was hanged for attacking the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi.

Among those convicted by Field General Court Martial, three were former officials of the Pakistan Air Force, three of Pakistan Army, one was the son of a retired army official and one was a sepoy of the army, who had killed his colleague in Peshawar Cantt while on duty.



Of the 11 terrorists tried by Anti-Terrorism Courts, eight belonged to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the now defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba. They had been convicted for sectarian killings. The three others were the men who had hijacked a PIA plane going from Turbat to Karachi in 1998.

The number of executions have been swelling by the day since the five-year long moratorium was lifted on December 19, 2014 in the wake of the attack that killed 153 children in Peshawar’s Army Public School. Initially it was only lifted for those convicted on terrorism charges, but now it has extended to all on death row.

“The state is committing murders in collaboration with the judiciary,” said Munawar Ali Shahid, a rights activists against death convictions, in a telephone interview from Germany. He said most of these death sentences were issued on the basis of a faulty judicial process, which does not meet international standards for fair trial. “In some cases, police obtain confessions through torture which then results in the conviction. Police applies the ATA against any individual, even if they have no connection to terrorism activity,” he added.

Former chief justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid, defined terrorism as a crime against society or an act that causes terror in the general public. He says a crime committed over personal enmity cannot fall under the ATA.

Executions by province

The province of Punjab has hanged an overwhelming number of those executed, with 127 convictions in five months. Adiala Jail alone has executed 18 people - the highest number for any jail.

Meanwhile, there have been three executions in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. One of the men executed was a former Air Force official who was charged for being involved in the assassination attempt on Musharraf and had been given court martial. Five executions took place in Balochistan, while 12 people were hanged in different jails of Sindh. Four executions took place at Central Jail Mirpur. Shahid says the recent executions are giving Pakistan the reputation of one of the leading executioners in the world.

Waiting on death row

At present, nearly 8,000 death row prisoners are waiting for the gallows in different prisons of the country. Some of them have been languishing in jails since the 1990s.

In 25 different jails of Punjab alone, there are 5,472 condemned prisoners, including 47 women. Among them, 44 are those whose appeals have been rejected. It is now up to the jail authorities to decide their fate by getting warrants to hang them from trial courts. The clemency appeals of 392 people have been pending with the president of Pakistan, while one appeal is pending before the GHQ. From Punjab alone, 875 appeals are pending before the Supreme Court of Pakistan and 4,162 appeals before the Lahore High Court.

Hangings

Executions in Punjab

Name of                                   People

prison   executed

Central Jail Rawalpindi (Adiala) 18

Central Jail Faisalabad               13

District Jail Faisalabad                 9

Central Jail Lahore                     18

Central Jail Gujranwala               9

Central Jail Sahiwal                    10

District jail Sialkot                       4

Central Jail Bahawalpur               5

District Jail Attock                       4

District Jail Gujrat                        3

Central Jail Mianwali                    7

District Jail Jhang                          5

District Jail Toba Tek Singh        2

District Jail Sargodha                  6

Central Jail Multan                       8

District Jail Vehari                        5

District Jail Jhelum             1

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2015.