PAKISTAN. RIGHTS OFFICIAL CONCERNED WITH TREATMENT OF DEATH ROW PRISONERS

Asma Jahangir, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), expressed deep concern over how the authorities were dealing with prisoners on death row. In a statement issued in Lahore, Asma said that there were 7,400 prisoners on death row throughout Pakistan, with approximately 6,889 in Punjab.
She said HRCP had monitored a few cases and come to the "horrifying conclusion that in a number of cases, due process was not followed or that the evidence was not compelling enough to prescribe capital punishment." In other cases, the co-accused who could afford to pay their way out of death were set free, while the vulnerable remained convicted, she said.
HRCP's chairperson also said that justice would remain a sham if irreversible death sentences were passed without regard to the rule of law and as an instrument of state revenge. She said that the government should take the sensible step of placing a moratorium on all death sentences till all cases were reviewed according to international norms applicable to capital punishment.