ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has lifted its moratorium on the death penalty in all capital cases, officials said on Tuesday, after restarting executions for terrorism offences in the wake of a Taliban school massacre.
The interior ministry has directed provincial governments to proceed with hangings for prisoners who have exhausted all avenues of appeal and clemency, a senior official said. Another government official confirmed the news.
Pakistan has hanged 24 convicts since resuming executions in December after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people at a school in the restive northwest.
The partial lifting of the moratorium only applied to those convicted of terrorism offences, but officials said it has now been extended.
"The interior ministry has directed the provincial home departments to expedite the executions of all condemned prisoners whose mercy petitions have been rejected by the president," the interior ministry official said. He said there are around 1,000 condemned prisoners around the country whose appeals and clemency petitions have failed.
The home secretary of southwestern Baluchistan province, Akbar Hussain Durrani, confirmed that the government had issued instructions to resume executions. "We have received a letter from federal government asking to expedite all death penalty cases for executions whose mercy petitions have been rejected," Durrani said.
Until December's resumption, Pakistan had not witnessed a civilian hanging since 2008. Only one person — a soldier convicted by a court martial — was executed in that time in November 2012. Rights group Amnesty International estimates that Pakistan has more than 8,000 prisoners on death row, most of whom have exhausted the appeals process.
Supporters of the death penalty argue it is the only effective way to check militancy. The courts are notoriously slow, with cases dragging on for years, with heavy reliance on witness testimony and little protection for judges and prosecutors.
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