Pakistan urged to halt executions

New York, Dec 17: Pakistan should immediately halt executions, reinstate the moratorium on death pelty, and move toward its abolition, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. The US-based rights body made the demand in a joint letter with Amnesty Intertiol to Prime Minister waz Sharif. In the year since the country’s six-year moratorium on executions was lifted, Pakistan has carried out more than 300 executions.

Those executed include child offenders, defendants who received blatantly unfair trials, and, most recently, individuals tried in secret by military courts with no civilian oversight, it said.

“Over the past year with the moratorium lifted, the Pakistani government has sent hundreds to the gallows with cruel disregard for the rights of those put to death,” said Human Rights Watch. “The government urgently needs to find a better way to address militancy and common crime since the death pelty has long shown to be ineffective in tackling these challenges.”

On December 17, 2014, Prime Minister Sharif rescinded an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment following a terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar that killed at least 149 people, including 132 children. The authorities should bring the perpetrators of this horrific attack to justice in fair trials but without resorting to the death pelty. Human Rights Watch said it opposes the death pelty in all circumstances as an inherently cruel punishment. (IANS)