LAHORE: A petition was moved on Monday in the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry pleading it to take up the earlier moved petition for abolishing death penalty from the country, DawnNews reported.

The petition was filed by Barrister Zafarullah representing ‘Watan party’.

Referring to the Constitution, the petitioner contended that the right to life was a natural right embodied in Article 9, whereas unnatural termination of life was incompatible and inconsistent with the concept of “right to life”.

The petitioner added that most of the countries had converted capital punishment to imprisonment to life and he pleaded that the same should be done in Pakistan.

Zafarullah pleaded the apex court to hear the cases of 8,000 prisoners, who have been given the death sentence, and convert those to life imprisonment.

Earlier in July 2011, the petitioner had submitted that as the criminal justice system of the country had been affected by overwhelming corruption in society, there were increased chances of innocents being declared guilty.

He had prayed to the court to abolish the death penalty as it was unconstitutional and save innocent people who were wrongfully convicted because of the corrupt system.