EXECUTIONS IN PAKISTAN The 480 prisoners that have been executed since December 2014 were tried under the following courts. CRIMINAL COURTS 65% ANTI TERRORISM COURTS 18% MILITARY COURTS 17% charged for offences other than terrorism, known as “scheduled offences.” In such scenarios, they are deprived of the key procedural safeguards, such as pertaining to custody and detention, that they would be entitled to under Pakistan’s ordinary criminal justice system. A study by Justice Project Pakistan and Reprieve ‘Terror on Death Row’ discovered that due to the broad scope of the law, almost 86 percent of those sentenced to death under the ATA were convicted for offences that bore little connection to terrorism as it is traditionally defined⁷. This number highlights the great discrepancy between the government’s aim of countering terrorism, that propelled the resumption of executions in December 2014, and the subsequent impact it has had in practice. In effect, the anti-terrorism regime created by the ATA is being employed by the police and law enforcement as a means to subvert the fundamental rights during arrest, investigation and trial of non-terrorism suspects, as opposed to effectively countering terrorist offences in Pakistan. This is made worse still by the fact that the ATA provides the death penalty for a broad range of offences including kidnapping for ransom, murder and hijacking. Moreover, those convicted under the ATA are more likely to be awarded the death penalty than those tried under the criminal justice system. Since the lifting of the moratorium over 76⁸ executions were carried out for suspects charged under the ATA. According to Amnesty International’s 2016 Death Penalty report, in 2016 out of a total of 277 death sentences, 31 death sentences were handed out by the ATCs⁹. OFFENCES OF THE 76 EXECUTED PRISONERS SINCE DECEMBER 2014 CHARGED BY ATCs TERRORISM MURDER OVER PERSONAL ENMITY MURDER DURING ROBBERY OTHER 2017 02 01 03 00 2016 01 01 03 00 2015 24 18 09 14 7 Justice Project Pakistan and Reprieve. “Terror on Death Row”. December 2014. [Terror on Death Row] Available on http://www. jpp.org.pk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2014_12_15_PUB-WEP-Terror-on-Death-Row.pdf 8 Till September 30, 2017 9 Amnesty International. “Death Sentences and Executions 2016”. 2017. p.24 TRIAL AND TERROR 02