UNITED NATIONS, Nov 16: Navi Pillay, the UN human rights chief, is disappointed and saddened by the news that Pakistan carried out its first execution in four years on Thursday and renewed her call for a moratorium on the practice to be made permanent, according to her spokesperson.

“The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) opposes the death penalty in any circumstances and has been greatly encouraged by the lengthening moratorium on executions in Pakistan,” the spokesperson, Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva.

There are reportedly some 8,000 people on death row in Pakistan — one of the largest numbers of prisoners on death row in the world.

Mr Colville said that when High Commissioner Pillay visited Pakistan in May this year, she urged the government to translate the moratorium into a more permanent ban and commute the sentences of several thousand prisoners on death row.