ISLAMABAD: Abdul Basit, a paraplegic who developed tubercular (TB) meningitis while on death row, and was convicted of murder in 2009, is scheduled for execution tomorrow (Nov 25).

Amnesty International claims it has recorded 299 executions since the death penalty was controversially reinstated following a Taliban mass killing at a school in Peshawar last year that was the country's deadliest ever extremist attack.

Basit's hanging has already been postponed several times after rights groups raised concerns about how a wheelchair-bound man would mount the scaffold.

Read: HRCP writes to PM to stay execution

Amnesty International slammed Islamabad Tuesday for “shamefully sealing its place among the world's worst executioners.”

Forty-five people were executed in October alone, Amnesty said, making it the deadliest month since the moratorium was lifted.

No official figures are available.

“Pakistan's ongoing zeal for executions is an affront to human rights and the global trend against the death penalty,” David Griffiths, the group's South Asia research director, said in the statement.

“Even if the authorities stay the execution of Abdul Basit, a man with paraplegia, Pakistan is still executing people at a rate of almost one a day.”

There was no evidence the “relentless” executions have done anything to counter extremism in the country, he added.

Also read: Execution of paralysed death row convict postponed.

The rights group also alleged that many of the executions come after court proceedings that “do not meet international fair trial standards”.

Pakistan ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty last year as part of a crackdown after Taliban militants gunned down more than 150 people, most of them children, at an army-run school in Peshawar.

The attack shocked and outraged a country already scarred by nearly a decade of extremism.

Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but in March they were extended to all capital offences.

The Human Right Commission of Pakistan puts the number of executions in the country since the lifting of moratorium at 295 . Out of the total 288 people were executed this year, according to HRCP.

Opinion

Editorial

Enrolment drive
10 May, 2024

Enrolment drive

IN a promising albeit familiar declaration, the prime minister has announced a four-year “education emergency” ...
Gwadar outrage
10 May, 2024

Gwadar outrage

JUST two days after the president, while on a visit to Balochistan, discussed the need for a political dialogue to...
Save the witness
10 May, 2024

Save the witness

THE old affliction of failed enforcement has rendered another law lifeless. Enacted over a decade ago, the Sindh...
May 9 fallout
Updated 09 May, 2024

May 9 fallout

It is important that this chapter be closed satisfactorily so that the nation can move forward.
A fresh approach?
09 May, 2024

A fresh approach?

SUCCESSIVE governments have tried to address the problems of Balochistan — particularly the province’s ...
Visa fraud
09 May, 2024

Visa fraud

THE FIA has a new task at hand: cracking down on fraudulent work visas. This was prompted by the discovery of a...