Islamabad: Unfazed by a threat from the Taliban, Pakistan is processing the cases of 450 condemned prisoners to move forward with their executions in order to establish the writ of law.
“There is a huge backlog of 450 cases and we are processing them as fast as we can,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has said. “We will continue the process to implement the execution orders so that the law may take its course,” he was quoted as saying.
Khan said the new PML-N government is determined to establish the writ of law by going ahead with the executions. His comments came against the backdrop of a warning from the Taliban that the government would face dire consequences if it goes ahead with the execution of any militants. Pakistan will next week end a five-year moratorium on executions by hanging four men, including three militants of banned groups.
An official of the Interior Ministry told the Dawn that the government has decided to deal with executions on a case-to-case basis and persons “related to terrorism were being selected”. Sources in the federal government said condemned prisoners would be executed in Sukkur Central Jail in Sindh province next week.
Three members of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi will be executed on August 20, 21 and 22. One of them was given the death sentence in six cases and another was sentenced to death in four cases. All executions were put on hold in 2008 by the former Pakistan People’s Party-led government and a presidential order imposed a moratorium. Soon after taking charge, the PML-N government decided that condemned terrorists should be hanged so that their network could be destroyed. (PTI)