Pakistan lifts unannounced ban on ‘non-terror’ executions

ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan on Friday lifted an unannounced ban on executions in all cases other than terrorism since that has already been implemented in the aftermath of deadly Peshawar school attack by Taliban militants.

Sources told Geo News that the federal government has informed Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and all four provincial governments in this regard.

According to the interior ministry’s order, a copy of which has been obtained by Geo news, over 1,000 convicts would be hanged across the country.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had ended the moratorium, exclusively for terrorism related cases, imposed by President Asif Ali Zardari in 2008. The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also promulgated National Action Plan (NAP) that includes formation of military courts under the civilian rule.

Since then dozens of convicted terrorist have been executed across the country. Before this, no one except a soldier convicted by court martial was put to death in the country since 2008.