50 more death row convicts to be hanged shortly

ISLAMABAD: The death row prisoners, who were convicted for murder for personal or property feuds or any other reason, still have time, as they will be executed at a later stage.
“As per the decision reached at the highest level, in the first phase only the high profile terrorists are being executed,” a senior official told The News. “There is no plan yet to hang other convicts involved in other crimes. But the policy of executions will be constantly reviewed.”
He said in the short term 70 high profile death row terrorists were identified for quick execution of whom 20 have already been hanged while others would be sent to the gallows in the next few weeks. The hangings were resumed after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted the moratorium on executions imposed six years ago in the wake of the December 16 massacre at the Peshawar Army Public School.
“These death row terrorists belong to the banned outfits including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),” the official said. “They were involved in attacks on mosques, Imambargahs, other places of worship etc.” He said that all appeals of these terrorists have been dismissed by the superior courts and their mercy pleas have also been rejected. Now, they have no legal remedy left to escape the punishment.
The official said that the process of the execution of these terrorists including issuance of death warrants was currently in different stages, which was being completed fast.To a question, he said that practically the executions have been divided into two phases; the first is in progress while the second one will start later.
The official said that the interior ministry would not refer any case to the military courts on its own but will send only those cases, after close scrutiny, which would be forwarded to it by the provincial apex committees (PACs).
He said although this was the job of the interior division, it would also get input from the federal law ministry, where necessary.The official said that the defence authorities would serve as a post office in forwarding the cases to the military courts as the actual decision to refer them would be taken by the interior ministry.
He said that a draft of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed in this exercise has been prepared, which would be finalised soon.The official said that since the PACs include senior civil and military authorities, they would be doing the real job in picking up the cases for trial by the military courts.
He said it was not necessary and mandatory that the interior ministry would refer to the army courts all the cases sent to it by the PACs. The parliamentary forces accepted army courts as a bitter pill to deal with the menace of terrorism.
“The interior ministry will closely scrutinise each and every case forwarded to it by the PACs before referring it to the military courts,” the official said.Precisely three weeks back, the Parliament unanimously passed the amendments in the Constitution and the Pakistan Army Act to pave way for the trial of ‘jet black’ terrorists by the military courts to be presided over by army officers.
Before they were put in operation, the amendments were challenged in the Supreme Court, which takes up identical petitions on Wednesday.As is the case with the military courts, their proceedings will be in-camera. However, the accused persons will be allowed to hire lawyers.The information about the court proceedings will be released by the army courts if they so decided. The defence lawyers will make public proceedings.