The AHRC wishes to thank President Asif Ali Zardari for staying the execution of Mr. Umer Khan, due to be hanged on October 29, 2008 at Mian Wali Prison, Punjab province (see: http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1746/ ) Mr. Khan has been given a two-month stay.
In a previous statement the AHRC reported that Khan (23) had been pardoned by the victims relatives after he paid blood money in court, which is legally binding under Islamic Sharia law. However the government refused to withdraw the case.
In light of this development, the AHRC wish to remind President Zardari of his governments repeated promise to commute Pakistans death sentences to life imprisonment, and that, due to widespread judicial corruption and the inability of the courts to guarantee a fair trial, the death penalty in Pakistan should be abolished.
The human rights movement in Pakistan has been heartened by President Zardaris decision to relocate some 400 condemned prisoners from death cells in Adiala Jail,Rawalpindi, Punjab province and some 250 such prisoners in Hyderabad, Sindh province, to ordinary barracks, despite opposition from the religious right.
The AHRC hopes that the parliament of Pakistan will soon commute all death sentences to life imprisonment through the legislative process. In the meantime it urges that no prisoner be executed.
