79 Id. 80 Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 (XXVI of 1997). 81 Justice Project Pakistan & Reprieve, Terror on Death Row: The Abuse and Overuse of Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Legislation 3 (Dec. 2014), http://www.reprieve.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2014_12_18_PUB-Pakistan-Terror-Courts-Report-JPPand-Reprieve.pdf [hereinafter JPP & Reprieve, Terror on Death Row]. 82 Asad Hashim, Pakistan Activists Upset By New Security Law, AL JAZEERA, July 13, 2014, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/07/pakistan-activists-upset-new-security-law-201471316625972647.html. 83 Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 (XXVI of 1997) § 6(1)©. 84 Id.; see also TARIQ PARVEZ AND MEHWISH RANI, AN APPRAISAL OF PAKISTAN'S ANTI-TERRORISM ACT 5 (United Institute of Peace 2015), https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR377-An-Appraisal-of-Pakistan%E2%80%99s-Anti-TerrorismAct.pdf. Parvez and Rani emphasize that the overuse of ATA prosecutions puts undue strain on counterterrorism resources and distracts from genuine and serious threats to national security. Id. at 1. 85 Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 (XXVI of 1997) § 6(1)©. 86 Law Library of Congress, Legal Provisions on Fighting Extremism: Pakistan (2015), https://www.loc.gov/law/help/fightingextremism/pakistan.php. 87 According to the FIDH report, the burden of proof from the prosecution to the accused resulting in a presumption of guilt. In 1999, in the case Khawaja Hasanullah v. The State (1999 MLD 51), the Karachi High Court ruled that the burden of proof was indeed shifted onto the accused. The High Court relied on section 8 of the Suppression of Terrorist Activities (Special Courts) Act 1975, which states: “When any person accused of having committed as scheduled offence is found to be in possession of, or to have under his control any article or thing which is capable of being used for, or in connection with the commission of such offence, or is apprehended in circumstances which lead to raise a reasonable suspicion that he had committed such offence, he shall be presumed to have committed the offense unless he can prove that he had not in fact committed the offense.” Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Slow March to the Gallows: Death Penalty in Pakistan 40 (Jan. 2007), https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/Pakistan464angconjointpdm.pdf.[hereinafter FIDH, Slow March]. 88 Section 21(H) of the ATA states: “[W]here in any court proceedings held under this Act the evidence (which includes circumstantial and other evidence) produced raises the presumption that there is a reasonable probability that the accused has committed the offence, any confession made by the accused during investigation without being compelled, before a police officer not below the rank of a District Superintendent of Police, may be admissible in evidence against him, if the Court so deems fit.” Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 § 21(H) (XXVI of 1997). 89 JPP & Reprieve, Terror on Death Row, supra note , at 12. 90 Section 19(10) of the ATA states: “Any accused person may be tried in his absence if the [Anti-Terrorism Court] after such inquiry as it deems fit, is satisfied that such absence is deliberate and brought about with a view to impending the course, of justice.” Anti-Terrorism Act § 19(10). (XXVI of 1997). 91 ICG, REFORMING, supra note , at 14. 92 JPP & Reprieve, Terror on Death Row, supra note , at 10. In these 256 cases, the prisoners were convicted only of charges under the Pakistan Penal Code; despite the absence of any proven causal link to terrorist organizations or activity, those cases were tried in the anti-terrorism court. Id. 93 An extrapolation of this sample, combined with the 256 cases from the Pakistan Penal Code, suggests that over 85% of all those sentenced to death by Pakistan's anti-terrorism courts had no connection to terrorism. Seeid. at 27 (2015). That figure is corroborated by the Center for Research and Security Studies, a Pakistani think tank, which concluded in 2010: “in the three [Anti-Terrorism Courts] based in Karachi, 199 individuals were on trial for heinous but non-terrorist offenses, compared with only thirty-five members of terrorist groups awaiting trial—meaning fully 83 percent of cases under trial in the ATCs were not of terrorists, but of normal criminals.” Center for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan's Challenges in Anti-Terror Legislation (2013) http://pgil.pk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Pakistan-Chalanges-in-Anti-Terror-Legislation.pdf. 94 For details on Shafqat Hussain's case, please see page 21. 95 PAK. PENAL CODE, § 364-A. A “MOST SERIOUS CRIME”: PAKISTAN'S UNLAWFUL USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY 48