Saturday, January 17, 2015

The End of moratorium of death penalty in Pakistan

After the attack on a school in Pakistan which killed more than 120 kids, Pakistan decided that enough is enough and they lifted a moratorium on death penalty for the last six years. The moratorium did not mean that death penalty was abolished; it just put a hold on it. The judges kept on passing on the death sentence but their final appeals were also rejected but they were on death row because nobody was executed, save one who was sentenced by a military court and hanged during this moratorium. The reason was not that suddenly Pakistan became a beacon of human rights but reportedly it was said that the European Union had supposedly threaten to take away the privilege of greater access to their markets if the death penalty moratorium was not instituted. This seems not be substantiated as both sides deny this but whatever is the case it was a disaster for Pakistan as human rights were abused more by this than anything else. Due to this moratorium and the still sentencing people to death, the death row has swelled to almost eight thousand prisoners which is by far the largest in the world. But due to these terrorists who have been striking with impunity and killing hundreds of people every month had not fear of the law. Even if they were caught and awarded the death penalty, they knew that they will not be put to death and one of these days their comrades will come and free them from the notoriously lax jail security. Now with the death penalty restored every person who has been sentenced to death and have all their appeals exhausted is panicking and asking for mercy from the President of Pakistan.

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