ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to constitute a larger bench to hear a case relating to an inordinate delay in execution of or commuting to life imprisonment the capital punishment of inmates who have completed life term in jails.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk made the decision on a petition moved by Barrister Zafarullah Khan on behalf of Dr Yaqoob Bhatti of the Watan Party.

Filed in 2012, the petition had drawn the court’s attention to the ordeal and mental tribulation the prisoners on death row had to undergo and said that about 8,526 prisoners were suffering badly in jails because the government was still sitting on a decision to commute the death sentences to life term.

Barrister Zafarullah said that many prisoners had reached the threshold of life imprisonment and they should be released immediately by commuting the capital punishment to life term. Citing a report of the Amnesty International, he that 8,526 inmates were languishing in prisons and the number was increasing with the passage of time. Last year 226 people were sentenced to death and this year 60. Compared to this, he said, only 400 prisoners were on death row in India.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014