VII. DEFICIENT APPELLATE PROCESS Pakistan fails to provide effective and timely appeals and post-conviction review of new and potentially exculpatory evidence. International law requires not only that persons accused of capital crimes be guaranteed a right to appeal, but also requires that this right be “effective”163 in practice and that it be granted without “undue delay.”164 Article 14(5) of the ICCPR provides the right of each criminal defendant “to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law.”165 The appellate procedure must also be effective.166 The Human Rights Committee has stated that this Article “imposes on the State party a duty to review substantively, both on the basis of sufficiency of the evidence and of the law, the conviction and sentence, such that the procedure allows for due consideration of the nature of the case.”167 While the ICCPR does not explicitly require that individuals be given the right to an appeal upon discovery of new evidence, this right is strongly implied by the Human Rights Committee's interpretation of Article 14. According to the Human Rights Committee, the ICCPR requires that a higher court review the allegations against a convicted person “in great detail” and consider “the evidence submitted at the trial and referred to in the appeal.”168 Defendants also have a right under the International Covenant, “to be tried without undue delay,” which includes the right to appeal.169 In the case of Pratt and Morgan v. Jamaica, the petitioners were unable to proceed to appeal to the Privy Council because it took the Court of Appeal almost three years and nine months to issue a written judgment. The Human Rights Committee, in concluding that Jamaica had violated Article 14(3)(c), stated that “in all cases, and especially in capital cases, accused persons are entitled to trial and appeal without undue delay, whatever the outcome of those judicial proceedings turns out to be.”170 In other cases, the Human Rights Committee has concluded that a delay of 29 months from arrest to trial was contrary to Article 14(3)(c), and that a delay of two years between arrest and trial also violates Articles 14(3)(c)171 and 9(3) of the Covenant. Article 14(5) of Pakistan's Constitution provides for the right to appeal death sentences. The provincial high courts hear appeals and are required to automatically review death sentences. The highest level of appeal for criminal cases is the federal Supreme Court.172 Although guaranteed on paper, the appeals process is often so slow as to be rendered ineffective in practice. Inadequate procedural safeguards at the pre-trial and trial stages for capital defendants are reproduced and compounded at the appellate level. Defendants have difficulty exercising their right to appeal due to “severe backlogs at both trial and appellate levels.”173 Delays in the appellate process are compounded by “an acute nation-wide shortage of judges.”174 A “MOST SERIOUS CRIME”: PAKISTAN'S UNLAWFUL USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY 20