Pakistani judges handed down a total of more than 4,000...

Pakistani judges handed down a total of more than 4,000 death sentences, in trials that international rights groups complain were often miscarriages of justice. However, the near absence of a sustained and vocal domestic campaign against capital punishment is said to be one of the reasons why the country has so many prisoners on death row. In 1999 the courts handed down 122 death sentences. Forty-nine people were sent to the gallows in the same year. "The rest have their appeals pending in higher courts," a Pakistani law official said.