SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Provincial prison authorities on Monday told the Sindh High Court that public execution of condemned convicts could not be committed due to the security situation in the country.
A division bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh, was seized with a constitutional petition seeking public hanging of the convicts on death row.
A civil rights campaigner, Rana Faizul Hasan, petitioned the SHC seeking execution of condemned convicts publicly under Article 2 of the Constitution and Islamic injunctions.
On Monday, the inspector general of prisons submitted a detailed report stating that as many as eight condemned convicts would be hanged within the next few days in the province.
It stated that there were 454 convicts on death row across the province and the appeals of as many as 369 condemned convicts were pending disposal at the SHC and the Federal Shariat Court, while 55 appeals of condemned men were being heard at the Supreme Court of Pakistan and 21 mercy petitions were pending disposal with the President of Pakistan.
The report said that as many as 151 convicts were on death row in the Karachi central prison. It said the mercy petition of a condemned convict was pending disposal at the General Headquarters (GHQ), while mercy appeals of seven others were pending decisions with the President. As many as 109 appeals of the condemned convicts were pending disposal before the SHC and the Federal Shariat Court, it said, adding that three condemned convicts were expected to be executed shortly.
According to the report, as many as 190 convicts on death row were lodged at the Hyderabad jail. It said that appeals of 176 condemned prisoners were being heard at the SHC and the Federal Shariat Court. Appeals of 11 convicts against the capital punishment were pending disposal at the apex court and mercy petitions of three others were pending decision at the presidency.
In the Sukkur jail, the report said, 92 condemned prisoners were lodged and appeals of 70 of them were pending disposal at the SHC and the FSC, while 10 appeals were in the apex court and seven mercy petitions were pending decision by the president. Five condemned prisoners were expected to be hanged within the next few days.
The report said that the public hanging could not be committed due to precarious law and order situation across the country.
It said that the penitentiaries in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and other parts of the province where alleged terrorists belonging to different proscribed outfits were guarded by police, Rangers and army troops.
The report said that the plan to seal and demolish multi-storey structures around the Karachi central prison was also being discussed by the provincial authorities.
The bench that also comprised Justice Syed Mohammed Farooq Shah directed the federal government to file its comments on the execution of the condemned convicts whose appeals against their conviction before the apex court and mercy petition before president had been dismissed.
The bench put off the hearing to a date to be later announced by the court office.
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