Britain is under pressure to suspend aid to Pakistan as the country prepares to resume executions, a foreign news outfit reported Thursday as Shoaib Sarwar, a convicted murderer, is scheduled to be hanged on Monday, ending a six-year moratorium on the death penalty and opening the door to the executions of thousands more on death row.
Britain will this year spend £446 million in Pakistan, including millions of pounds to support anti-drug trafficking operations by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), under a United Nations (UN) scheme to halt the flow of drugs from Afghanistan.
British aid has provided extensive training, as well as bullet-proof vests, night vision goggles, vehicles, body scanners and paid for the maintenance of helicopters.
Reportedly 111 drug offenders are on Pakistan’s death row, including British nationals who were convicted in trials which critics argue fell short of international standards.
Reprieve, the charity that campaigns against the death penalty, said Britain risks being “complicit in a gross human rights abuse” if drug mules caught by a force trained and equipped by Britain are executed.
The ANF prides itself on securing a conviction rate of more than 92 percent and there are widespread allegations of police corruption and fabricated evidence in trials.
British aid in Pakistan is frequently judged on its success in increasing the number of arrests and successful prosecutions.
Reprieve’s death penalty team Director Maya Foa reportedly said that the people whose death sentences British aid has supported are “innocent scapegoats or vulnerable mules”, often targeted by corrupt police forces eager to meet quotas.
British aid for executions breaches the (British) Government’s human rights rules and mocks its commitment to fight capital punishment abroad, she said.
UK Department for International Development spokesman said, “Our aid relationship with any government is based on an assessment of commitment to our partnership principles, including to human rights.”
A UK Foreign Office spokesman added, “We are concerned by any suggestion that executions might resume in Pakistan. The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and continues to urge the Government of Pakistan to abolish the death penalty, and as a minimum to maintain its de facto moratorium on executions.”
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