Govt lifts moratorium on death penalty of all convicts

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has formally lifted the moratorium on death penalty of all the condemned prisoners.
“The execution of death sentences may be carried out strictly as per the law and only where all legal options and avenues have been exhausted and mercy petitions under Article 45 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan have been rejected by the president,” says a letter of the Interior Ministry, a copy of which is also available with The News.
Following the Army Public School (APS) massacre, the moratorium was partially lifted only for those convicted in terrorism cases and around 20 such prisoners were executed across the country.
The latest order has allowed all the provincial governments to execute all those whose mercy petitions had been rejected by the president.The sources claim that the execution of all such prisoners would start in the next couple of weeks. They also claim that around 1,000 such condemned prisoners were being kept in different jails of the country.
Sources claim that the government took this decision in a recent meeting, headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, following which the Interior Ministry sent a summary to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat for formal approval of executions.
The sources claim that the summary forwarded by the Interior Ministry to the prime minister was immediately approved, as Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was personally monitoring the issue.