On the occasion of the World Day against the Death Penalty, the Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to thank and congratulate the federal government of Pakistan for stepping in at the eleventh hour to stay the execution of condemned prisoner Zulfiqar Ali, son of Rasheed Khan, despite the presidents earlier refusal to do so. Had the execution gone ahead on the morning of October 8, Ali, would have become the fifth prisoner to be hung despite the federal cabinet decision on July 2, to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment. Zulfiqar Ali was sentenced to death for murder but he had no legal representation at the trial.
The AHRC was also pleased to learn that 465 prisoners at Adiala prison, in Rawalpindi have been moved from death row cells to the open barracks of ordinary prisoners on the orders of President Asif Zardari. This suggests that the government has recognized the need for a serious review of its death penalty law — a review that has often been attempted and always waylaid by politicians and proponents of Islamic law.
There are currently over 7,000 condemned prisoners on death row — including women and children – most in dire, crowded conditions, many without legal representation. The number of crimes carrying the death penalty increased under the government of the last President, Pervez Musharraf, and this significantly increased the number of death row inmates. When Pakistan was founded 61 years ago only murder and treason carried the death penalty. Now crimes such as extra marital sex, blasphemy, drug offences and several others, over twenty offences in all, carry the death penalty. Adultery can be punished with stoning.
Next to China and Iran, Pakistan executes more people each year than any other country in the world. To date 128 countries have abolished the death penalty, and of those that have not, only around half carry out executions. Pakistan voted against a United Nation General Assembly resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty in December 2007. In 2004 the High Court in Lahore revoked an ordinance that exempted those under the age of 18 years from execution. An appeal is still pending.
Pakistans death penalty has been commuted before. Former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and founder of the current ruling party, Pakistan Peoples Party, commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment but he was later hung by the military. His daughter and former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto also pledged several times to abolish the death sentence. On July 2, 2008 the federal cabinet ruled against the death penalty but was pressured into reversal by Muslim fundamentalists, and the Chief Justice Dogar (who was appointed during the state of emergency by the former President Musharraf).
After taking presidential office, Mr Asif Ali Zardari promised that he would commute the death sentence of 7,024 death row prisoners to life imprisonment, as a tribute to the memory of the assassinated former president, his wife, Benazir Bhutto. The president, under Article 145 of the constitution, has the power to commute the penalty himself. The Pakistan Peoples Party has also confirmed the intention at least four times. However there has been no follow-through. President Zardari has not issued the notification, and since making the statement on June 21, 2008, five people have been hung. The initial jubilance of the inmates has started to wane, and in August a plea was sent to President Zardari from Adiala Prisons death row. Please see AHRC-STM-221-2008.
The government has failed to carry out a number of its election promises, but in this case too many lives hang in the balance. Pakistans inability to guarantee a fair trial makes it vital that no more lives be taken by its legal system. Many judges are criticized as open to bribery. Confessions continue to be extracted by the police. Many on death row complaint that they are there because they simple could not afford the bribes or fees for legal counsel to provide a defense. To use their lives as a popularity stunt to attract support from fundamentalists elements defeats the very purpose of governance. The Pakistan Peoples Party needs to by its promises to uphold the rule of law and stand strongly against those that benefit from the current, corrupt state of the system.
