PAKISTAN: GOVT PLANS TO BRING BILL AGAINST DEATH PENALTY

In Pakistan, the government plans to introduce a bill in parliament which will convert death penalty into life imprisonment, informed sources told Dawn.
The bill is likely to be tabled in the coming session of the National Assembly.
The sources said that President Asif Ali Zardari was taking keen interest on the issue and wanted to see the conversion of capital punishment into life imprisonment before the end of the PPP government in March 2013.
“A recent party meeting decided in principle to go ahead with the bill,” a source said, adding that its coalition partners had also been taken into confidence over the issue.
President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said: “The government is considering converting death sentence into life imprisonment and is taking appropriate legislative measures for the purpose.”
He said the prime minister had constituted a committee comprising minister for interior, minister for law, attorney general and representatives of provincial governments to make recommendations.
When contacted, Attorney General Irfan Qadir the committee had not yet presented its recommendations to the government.