Pakistan
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · In December 1998, the Government set up military trial...
- News items in the archive
- 2,105
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Pakistan is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 2,105 news items on Pakistan, from 1999 to today.
In Pakistan the death penalty applies to a very wide list of offences, from murder to terrorism to blasphemy, and the method is hanging. The country observed a de facto moratorium for some years, broken after the attack on the school in Peshawar in 2014.
Pakistan's death row is among the most populated in the world. The archive follows executions, sentences, appeals and the cases of people with mental disabilities.
Latest news
- JULY 25, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
A private "deal" between two families under which juvenile...
A private "deal" between two families under which juvenile girls were married off to old men as part of a compensation package to save four murder convicts on death row was attacked by women and human rights activists in Pakistan
- JULY 25, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Four murderers face execution on July 27 in Pakistan...
Four murderers face execution on July 27 in Pakistan after a storm of protest scuttled a deal by which they sought to escape hanging by selling young daughters into marriage to elderly relatives of their victims
- JULY 24, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
The death sentences of 74 juvenile delinquents were...
The death sentences of 74 juvenile delinquents were converted into life imprisonment with the enforcement of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2002 in Punjab, Punjab's Law Minister Rana Ijaz Ahmad Khan said during a visit to Lahore's Camp Jail
- JULY 24, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered a probe into an alleged...
Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered a probe into an alleged deal by which four men on death row won freedom in exchange for cash and allowing their victims' clan to marry eight young women
- JULY 24, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Four Pakistani convicts were saved from the gallows...
Four Pakistani convicts were saved from the gallows after they agreed to pay eight million rupees in compensation and eight girls of their families as "compensation" to the aggrieved party
- JULY 23, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
An ex-Taliban commander said Islamic militants led...
An ex-Taliban commander said Islamic militants led by Al-Qaeda want to strike quickly against US interests in Pakistan in retaliation for the death sentence in the Daniel Pearl murder case and a crackdown on Muslim extremists
- JULY 20, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
The death sentence awarded on July 17 by a Lahore district...
The death sentence awarded on July 17 by a Lahore district and sessions court to a Christian, Anwar Kenneth, accused of blasphemy, drew outrage from human rights bodies within and outside the country
- JULY 19, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
A Pakistani Christian who claimed he was Jesus Christ...
A Pakistani Christian who claimed he was Jesus Christ and called Islam a fake religion was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death by hanging
- JULY 19, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
The leader of the militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed,...
The leader of the militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was sentenced to death in kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl filed an appeal in Sindh High Court, saying he has been convicted on the basis of "fake,
- JULY 19, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
A senior Pakistani investigator said DNA tests confirmed...
A senior Pakistani investigator said DNA tests confirmed that a decapitated body found in a shallow grave in Karachi in May is that of kidnapped American reporter Daniel Pearl
- JULY 19, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
America is ready to drop its demand for Pakistan to...
America is ready to drop its demand for Pakistan to extradite Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born Muslim extremist sentenced to death for masterminding the kidnap and murder of the American journalist Daniel Pearl
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
The US welcomed the Pakistani court verdict sentencing...
The US welcomed the Pakistani court verdict sentencing Sheikh Omar to death and three of his accomplices to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
The UK Foreign Office said that although it welcomed...
The UK Foreign Office said that although it welcomed the verdict on Omar Sheikh, Britain was opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
An alliance of Pakistan's non-Muslim minority communities...
An alliance of Pakistan's non-Muslim minority communities urged the military government to repeal a controversial blasphemy law they say is being used against them to settle personal scores
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Pakistani prosecutors said they had filed an appeal...
Pakistani prosecutors said they had filed an appeal seeking death penalty for three men found guilty of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Omar Sheikh was locked up last night in an isolation...
Omar Sheikh was locked up last night in an isolation cell in the Hyderabad central jail, a grim British-built limestone edifice that holds more than 4,000 prisoners near the heart of the city
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
The US welcomed the Pakistani court verdict sentencing...
The US welcomed the Pakistani court verdict sentencing Sheikh Omar to death and three of his accomplices to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Awais Sheikh publicly defended his beloved older brother...
Awais Sheikh publicly defended his beloved older brother Sheikh Omar against accusations of terrorism, kidnapping and now murder
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh's father, Ahmed Sheikh, said...
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh's father, Ahmed Sheikh, said that he expected such a verdict after his son was sentenced to death for murdering US journalist Daniel Pearl
- JULY 16, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Pakistan was bracing for a violent backlash over the...
Pakistan was bracing for a violent backlash over the conviction of four men for the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, after police received tip-offs that militants were plotting retaliation
- JULY 15, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Religious parties in Pakistan reacted sharply to the...
Religious parties in Pakistan reacted sharply to the death sentence gievn to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh for the killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl saying his trial was unfair and aimed at appeasing the US
- JULY 15, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Hundreds of common Pakistanis were gathered outside...
Hundreds of common Pakistanis were gathered outside the court when the judgment against Omar Sheikh and the three other accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case was announced
- JULY 15, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
DEATH SENTENCE FOR PEARL MURDER
July 15, 2002: a special anti-terrorism court in Pakistan sentenced British-born militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death for abducting and murdering US journalist Daniel Pearl.
- JULY 10, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan concluded the closed-door...
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan concluded the closed-door trial of four men charged with the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and reserved the judgment until July 15
- JULY 8, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Pakistani police said they had arrested two more men...
Pakistani police said they had arrested two more men accused of gang-raping a woman on the orders of a village jury, bringing to four the total held so far, but a fifth suspect was still at large
- JULY 5, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Pakistan police claimed to have arrested one of the...
Pakistan police claimed to have arrested one of the four suspects in the gang-rape of a teenaged girl even as the government said the culprits would be tried under anti-terrorism laws, which entail the death sentence
- JULY 4, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
A mob of Pakistani Muslims stoned to death a man accused...
A mob of Pakistani Muslims stoned to death a man accused of blasphemy in the central province of Punjab, police and witnesses said
- JULY 4, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
A tribal jirga (jury) may not have any legal sanction,...
A tribal jirga (jury) may not have any legal sanction, but it continues to operate in many parts of Pakistan, where tribal and feudal systems are still dominant
- JULY 4, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
The ordeal of Fareed's family, who belong to the socially...
The ordeal of Fareed's family, who belong to the socially low Gujjar tribe, began when his 12-year-old son, Abdul Shakoor, was accused of having an affair with a 22-year-old woman of the higher-caste Mastoi tribe
- JULY 4, 2002PakistanDEATH PENALTY
Mukhtar Mai wept continually as she described how she...
Mukhtar Mai wept continually as she described how she had been gang-raped on the orders of an unofficial tribal jury as a punishment for her brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher caste