Daily Times

Lahore: Pakistan’s use of death penalty has failed to deter crime.It has not curbed terrorism, and is exceedingly being used as a political tool, finds research conducted by the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP).

The data analysed by the JPP also shows instances where executions have been used as a mechanism to manage prison population.

Since Pakistan lifted its moratorium on executions in December 2014, it has sent 465 prisoners to the gallows until May 2017. This makes Pakistan the fifth most prolific executioner in the world – following China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

JPP’s research shows that an overwhelmingly large number of these executions have taken place in the Punjab. Executions in the province account for 83 percent of executions in the country since lifting of the moratorium, and death sentences awarded by courts in the province account for 89 percent of those awarded country-wide. In comparison, the province has witnessed only a 9.7 percent drop in murder rates from 2015-2016, the JPP research shows.

On the other hand, Sindhhas seen murder rate dropping by nearly 25 percent in the same time period. Of the 465 executions, only 18 were in Sindh compared to 382 in Punjab.

A press statement issued by the JPP said that murder rates were already in decline across the country before the lifting of the moratorium. “This casts even more doubts on the already dubious relationship between death penalty and crime reduction,” it added.

“A closer look at yearly trends shows that executions ordered by anti-terrorism courts (ATC) account for only 16 percent of total executions. In 2015, 65 people tried at ATCs were hanged. From Jan 2016 to May 2017, the figure drops down to only eight. The majority of death sentences carried out in this time period was issued bydistrict and sessions courts that don’t have jurisdiction over terrorism cases,” it said.

The statement said that the government had sought to justify lifting the moratorium for all 27 crimes carrying a death penalty on grounds that it was necessary to deter terrorist threats to the country. “The data indicates that the government is mostly hanging terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwathrough military courts and in Sindhthrough ATCs,” it said.

Another trend observed by the JPP was that the number of executions spike in the wake of a terrorist attack (in Punjab) with a death toll of over five. “This indicates that the use of executions, like the lifting of the moratorium, is often a reactionary step,” the statement noted. “In Punjab, there is another worrying trend indicating that executions are being used as a means to make room in crowded prisons,” it said.

Currently, 25 of the 27 prisons in the province are operating beyond capacity.The highest number of executions has been documented by the JPP in some of the most crowded prisons. The JPP said that Pakistan was headed for its first U.N. review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on July 11. Under the convention, the country was obligated to uphold and respect the right to life for all its citizens. It said Pakistan’s return to the ranks of states executing death penalties had been taken up in the list of issues framed by the Human Rights Council committee.

The JPP said that in just one-year after the moratorium was lifted, Pakistan became the third-most prolific executioner in the world. “During that time, execution warrants have been issued for mentally-ill, physically-disabled and juvenile offenders. More and more cases of wrongful executions have come to light. In October last year, the Supreme Court acquitted two brothers in Bahawalpur after they spent 11-years on death row, only to find out that the two had already been executed the year before. Another prisoner was found innocent a year after he had been found dead in his cell. There are likely many more cases like these, considering a condemned prisoner will spend an average of 11.41 years on death row,” the statement said.

Published in Daily Times, July 7^th , 2017.