The Lahore High Court Thursday sought a report and para-wise comments from the federal and provincial governments within three weeks on a petition against moratorium on death penalty.
Justice Mehmood Maqbool Bajwa passed the orders on a petition filed by Judicial Activism Panel, a public interest litigation firm.
Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique submitted that reportedly about 8,000 convicted prisoners were kept in prisons across Pakistan and they were waiting for the execution of capital punishment/death sentence awarded to them by the courts.
However, the government authorities had suspended the execution of death sentence due to different reasons, he said. He contended the government or state did not have authority to restrain the execution of death penalty as it was in violation of Islamic injunctions and Articles 2, 2A and 227 of the Constitution. He further submitted that one of reasons for Peshawar incident was delay in implementation of death sentence.
He pleaded the court to issue directions for lifting ban on implementation of death sentence to reduce the tragic and inhuman incidents of terrorism in future.
The court after recording initial arguments sought a reply from federal and provincial governments within three weeks besides adjourning the matter till January 9.