Pakistan to execute first civilian in 6 years next week

[Al Bhatti]

September 12, 2014

Pakistan to execute first civilian in 6 years next week

A judge in Pakistan has ordered a murderer to be hanged next week, officials said Friday, in what would be the country's first civilian execution in six years.

The country has had a de facto moratorium on civilian hangings since 2008. Only one person has been executed since then, a soldier convicted by court martial and hanged in November 2012.

"A judge has passed an order that a murder convict be hanged," an official at Adiyala Prison in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjoining Islamabad, told AFP.

"Arrangements for the execution on September 18 are being made," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Shoaib Sarwar was given the death penalty in July 1998 for murdering Awais Nawaz in January 1996. All his appeals in the high court and Supreme Court were rejected, as was a mercy petition to the president, the official said.

Sarwar is currently being held in a jail in the northwestern town of Haripur, some 25 kilometres from Islamabad, but authorities there told AFP they had not yet been informed about the execution.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was dismayed at the news.

"HRCP wishes to remind the government that the reasons that have caused the stay of executions since 2008 have not changed," the group said in a statement.

"These include the well-documented deficiencies of the law, flaws in administration of justice and investigation methods and chronic corruption."

Last June the newly elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif scrapped the moratorium in a bid to crack down on criminals and Islamist militants.


But two weeks later it announced a further stay of executions after an outcry from rights groups and the then-president Asif Ali Zardari.


All execution orders in Pakistan must be signed by the president.

European Union officials indicated last year that if Pakistan resumed executions, it could jeopardise a highly prized trade deal with the bloc.

An EU rights delegation warned it would be seen as a "major setback" if Pakistan restarted hangings.


Rights campaign group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process.

Pakistan to execute first civilian in 6 years next week - Emirates 24/7

 

[TankMan]

I say thank god. How long can we afford to have murderers roaming around, or sitting in Jails that are already full? Most criminals think that they can escape the death row through loopholes or bribes etc. Death penalty is important in a country like Pakistan where the crime rate is so high.

 

[FaujHistorian]

I say thank god. How long can we afford to have murderers roaming around, or sitting in Jails that are already full? Most criminals think that they can escape the death row through loopholes or bribes etc. Death penalty is important in a country like Pakistan where the crime rate is so high.

life long imprisonment, with hard labor.

better choice than hanging.

 

[Al Bhatti]

I say thank god. How long can we afford to have murderers roaming around, or sitting in Jails that are already full? Most criminals think that they can escape the death row through loopholes or bribes etc. Death penalty is important in a country like Pakistan where the crime rate is so high.

life long imprisonment, with hard labor.

better choice than hanging.

Do you think all those are really criminals?

Rights campaign group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row

These include the well-documented deficiencies of the law, flaws in administration of justice and investigation methods and chronic corruption.

 

[TankMan]

life long imprisonment, with hard labor.

better choice than hanging.

I agree, better option. But until our authorities are capable enough to enforce all this, they need to do atleast something.

Do you think all those are really criminals?

Majority are either criminals or involved with the criminals in some way. If corrupt politicians want to kill someone in Pakistan, they have other ways, they don't need to set them up for death row.

Flaws in administration of Justice are there and they're a big problem, we also have the problem of rich people bribing judges and lawyers etc while the poor suffer injustice.
However, the innocent people are on death row anyways, no?
Those who are innocent can't escape unless the system changes. But those who are criminals, they'll either escape or be freed by their criminal allies.

 

[Luftwaffe]

life long imprisonment, with hard labor.

better choice than hanging.

If hanging is cruel than life long imprisonment with hard labor is also cruel since the prisoner would age with time and the mental/physical stress would over come him, he would naturally want death at one point.

This committing crimes and than forgiven by law is not a good trend.

 

[Green Arrow]

We need to hang all TTP and other terrorist elements. There should be no mercy for these scums