Zardari welcomes moratorium on executions
Former president Calls for a thorough review of death penalty in the country.
ISLAMABAD (Online) - Former President Asif Ali Zardari has welcomed government’s decision regarding informal moratorium on executions and called for a thorough review of death penalty in the country.
Zardari asserted to review death penalty in the light of prevailing objective conditions on the one hand and religious obligations on the other.
“Continuing with rational policies of predecessors is a sign of wisdom and political maturity that must be encouraged and welcomed”, spokesperson quoted the former President as saying.
In a statement, spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the former President expressed satisfaction over the decision, adding also applauded that in deciding to continue with former government’s policy recent government was not deterred by the usual political compulsions and pressures, he added.
Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that the proponents of death penalty often argued that Islam ordained the death penalty, adding according to a large number of eminent religious scholars Islam provides for death punishment only for murder and ‘fasad-fil-arz’ (mischief in the land) but in Pakistan over two dozens offences carried death penalty.
This makes it necessary that the list of offenses carrying death penalty is reviewed, he said.
Babar added that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would support the government in carrying out a review the list of offenses carrying mandatory capital punishment.
Farhatullah Babar said that capital punishment was irreversible and no remedy is available if later it was established that the executed person was innocent.
He added that the nation has still not recovered from the after effects of execution of Pakistan’s first directly elected Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto through dubious and politically motivated proceedings.
The second protocol of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) signed by Pakistan calls for abolition of the death penalty and cannot be ignored for too long, he said.
