PPC PUNISHMENTS

Capital punishment in Pakistan

Capital punishment is legal in Pakistan. There had been a moratorium on executions since 2008, but the moratorium was lifted for terrorism real cases as of 16 December 2014, following the massacre of 132 students and 9 members of staff of the Army Public School and Degree College Peshawar. On 19 December 2014, Pakistan executed two prisoners convicted of offences unrelated to the Peshawar massacre. As of September 2015, Pakistan has executed 239 death row prisoners since 2014 Peshawar school massacre.

At least 241 people were sentenced to death in Pakistan in 2005, and at least 31 were executed – the fifth highest number in the world. Pakistan ranked fifth (total cases – not per capita) after the People's Republic of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The moratorium expired on 30 June 2013 and the government announced it had no plan to extend it. The government stated there will be no general amnesty for the convicts waiting for execution. As of 4 July 2013, Amnesty International estimated there are more than 8,000 prisoners on death row. The European Union (EU) has sharply reacted over lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty in Pakistan, and has demanded its immediate restoration, which had been in place since 2008.

Amnesty International recorded 13 executions in 1999, while the moratorium was intact. and it reports these execution were carried out by the lower courts. However it is not at all apparent what the report means by "lower courts" as only one Trial Court, the Court of Sessions, has the power to award capital punishment (Section 31(2) Code of Criminal Procedure and that Court generally tries only the most serious crimes. All death sentences have to be confirmed by the High Court (Sections 31(25), 374 and 376 Code of Criminal Procedure).

Controversially Pakistan was one of only eight countries in the world (China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United States and Yemen), that since 1990 executed prisoners who were under 18 years old at the time of committing a crime. Pakistan along with the United States and Yemen have now raised the minimum age to 18 in law to be eligible for execution.^[

Hanging is the only legal method of execution (Section 368 Code of Criminal Procedure).

2008 moratorium

The Constitution of Pakistan empowers the President to pardon or remit convictions. Pakistan Peoples Party government whose former chairperson Benazir Bhutto was a well-known opponent of death penalty came to the power in March 2008 and installed its President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari on 9 September 2008. Who upon taking charge of the office issued an indefinite moratorium of prisoners on death row. Pakistan's moratorium ended on 14 November 2014 when Mr. Muhammed Hussain, a soldier was hanged for murder at Central Jail Mianwali.

On 17 December 2014, after the Peshawar school attack, in which the Pakistani Taliban murdered 132 children and at least nine others, the authorities announced the moratorium would be lifted for terrorism cases. Executions immediately resumed, with dozens more following.

Finally on 10 March 2015, Pakistan lifted the moratorium on the use of capital punishment in the country entirely.

On 28 April 2015, according to Amnesty International, Pakistan carried out its 100th execution since the moratorium was ended for the death penalty in December 2014.

On 14 June, the Pakistan government announced a temporary reprieve for death row prisoners during the month of Ramadan. So far the government having executed about 180 convicts in 6 months since the Peshawar school attack. Executions to continue after Ramadan.

On 5 August 2015, Pakistan hanged Shafqat Hussain in Karachi who was convicted of killing a 7-year-old boy in 2004. The execution was condemned by Amnesty International as Husain’s lawyers argued he was only 14 at the time and was tortured into confessing to the murder. The following day, an official from the interior ministry confirmed that 200th inmates had been executed since the moratorium ended in December 2014.

Capital punishment is legal in Pakistan, also one of the eight countries in the world where people under the age of 18 can face execution for committing certain crimes.

Although other ways of carrying out the death penalty are considered legal, in practice hanging is method of execution most widely adopted.

Blasphemy

According to Pakistani Penal Code: "Whoever, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person or makes any gesture in the sight of that person or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both."

In 1982, a clause prescribed life imprisonment for "willful" desecration of the Koran.

In 1986, a separate clause was inserted to punish blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad and the penalty recommended was "death, or imprisonment for life".

A British man diagnosed with schizophrenia has been recently sentenced to capital punishment for blasphemy.

Drug trafficking

According to Pakistan penal code, illegal trafficking of more than one kilogram of a drug is punishable by death.

A British woman has swerved the death sentence but been sentenced to life imprisonment after she was caught attempting to smuggle £3.2m worth of heroin out of Pakistan.

Mother-of-three Khadija Shah, 26, was six months pregnant when she was arrested at Islamabad airport in May 2012

Her baby daughter, Malaika, has remained in prison with her ever since she was born.

Adultery

Extramarital sexual relations may lead to death sentences.

A couple accused of adultery were stoned to death in Pakistan's western Baluchistan province in February 2013.

However, after the couples were killed, the woman's father and brother, and the man's uncle and father were arrested, along with a cleric believed to have issued the order to kill them.

In Pakistan, honor killing is very widespread.

Under the banner of 'honor killing' people (mainly women) are killed, often by parents and relatives, if their behavior is considered to bring shame upon the family.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that 943 women died in so-called honor killings in Pakistan in 2011.

Amnesty International reported 960 honor killings in Pakistan in 2010.

Apostasy

The abandonment of Islam may lead to execution.

The Pakistani penal code does not specify death penalty for apostasy; Pakistan is however ruled by Sharia law and Sharia courts are theoretically in a position to apply the death penalty.

According to a 2010 poll by Pew Research Centre, 6% of Muslims in Pakistan agree with the death penalty being issued for leaving Islam.

Kidnapping

Kidnapping to murder, harm, for slavery or sexual abuse or trafficking, or putting the victim in the danger of any of those things, is punishable by death, according to the Pakistan penal code.

Kidnapping for ransom or extortion is also punishable by death.