It is hanging season in Pakistan.

Federal minister for interior, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, last week informed the National Assembly that since the launch of the National Action Plan (NAP) in December last year, 175 convicts had been sent to the gallows.

The undeclared moratorium on the implementation of death penalty was lifted after the attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar, on December 16, 2014.

According to a separate piece of information shared with the members of the lower house of the parliament by the interior minister, during the current year, 89 prisoners on death row have been hanged.

Surprisingly, the majority of the hangings – 57 - have been carried out in Punjab, followed by Sindh (11), Balochistan (2), whereas none took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gigit Baltistan, and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). This is surprising, because the KP has been the worst affected by terrorism.

Throughout the five years of the PPP government, the death penalty was not executed. Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, the ruling PML-N, too, maintained the stay. But this changed till the APS, Peshawar, massacre happened. Reportedly, the moratorium was lifted on the insistence of the military leadership.

Since then those awarded the death punishment are being sent to the gallows, despite the pressure from rights organizations and some states. And many have pointed out that very few of those executed were involved in terrorism.

According to an international news agency’s analysis, “of 180 people executed since January, 29 were convicted of assassinations or assassination attempts, sectarian murders, hijacking or killing of security officials - falling under a broad definition of militancy.”

This is all the more striking when one considers that the execution of the capital punishment, according to the NAP, was meant to send a clear message to would be terrorists that those who had committed the heinous crime of killing innocent people would be punished.

However, the figures quoted above show that many of those who were sent to the gallows were not actually involved in terrorism.

But this has not deterred the government; in fact the government doesn’t even seem interested in this aspect.

The interior minister didn’t provide the details of how many of those hanged were convicted of terrorist attacks and how many were involved in crime. He simply said that “it was part of the effective implementation of the NAP.”

Undoubtedly, a message was sent with the first executions that were carried out after the APS attack when in the last week of December, those convicted of attacking former president and military strongman retired General Pervez Musharraf, and the assault on the military office, General Headquarters (GHQ) were hanged. They were Aqeel alias Dr Usman, Arshahd Mehmood, Zubair Ahmad, Rasheed Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti, Akhlaque Ahmad, and Khalid Mehmood. They had been punished by the military courts.

Since then most of those hanged have been involved in cases of murder.

However, it’s not just the fewer numbers of terrorists being ‘punished’ that has caused concern. The state also faced considerable criticism in cases where the convicted was seen to have been unfairly tried or inadequately defended, leading to the death sentence.

Perhaps the most high profile case in this regard was that of Shafqat Hussasin, who was hanged earlier this week. His hanging was deferred more than once because rights organisations argued that he was under age at the time he was tried and convicted. It was an issue that also got prominently covered by the international press.

Even a senior official of the interior ministry conceded that the majority who had been hanged had been convicted in routine murder cases.

This is why regardless of one’s stand on the death punishment, many are asking if the implementation of the death sentence will achieve the goal of arresting terrorism.

And it seems as if the government is also not interested in answering this question. Why else would it not even put together the numbers of the terrorists who have been executed while providing the numbers to the National Assembly?

The interior minister really needs to duly highlight the details, particularly those of the terrorists hanged, said a member of the ruling party.

Indeed, the recent decision of the Supreme Court upholding the military led courts will draw more attention to the issue of the death penalty. As the trials are held and punishments awarded, those who face the gallows will try and approach the courts for a review and cases will also be highlighted in the media and by rights organisations.

For a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court the government will then face greater pressure to provide more details to address the apprehensions of those who are against this measure. “Particularly those cases in which military courts will hand down death punishments,” added the lawyer, who requested not to be named.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2015

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