On June 30, Pakistan’s new government, under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ended a ban on the death penalty, a move condemned by international human rights organizations. The change seems to be an effort by the government to appear determined to rein in escalating crime and militancy. All executions must be approved by the president and the method of execution is usually hanging.

In 2008, The Pakistan’s Peoples Party, chaired by Benazir Bhutto who was a staunch opponent of capital punishment, enforced a suspension of the death penalty, a move praised by rights groups around the world. Today, up to 8,000 people languish on death row in dozens of Pakistan’s notoriously overcrowded and violent jails. “Pakistan is part of a dwindling minority of States who continue to retain the death penalty and carry out executions,” the International Crisis Group said. “The prospect of lifting the moratorium is all the more alarming given the extraordinarily high number of people on death row.”

Pakistan’s government says capital punishment is necessary to deter crime in violence-plagued cities such as Karachi as well as on its border with Afghanistan where Taliban militants launch daily attacks. Nonetheless, according to the United Nations and human rights groups, there is no evidence showing that the practice can serve as a deterrent to crime or extremism. 

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