Pakistan removing legal hurdles to execute convicts

Pakistani government is trying to remove legal hurdles to implement the execution of over 500 terrorists who have already been sentenced to death by the courts, sources from the Prime Minister House told Xinhua on Monday.

The source, seeking anonymity, said if the government succeeds in solving the legal issues, over 500 convicts will be hanged in coming weeks in different jails of the country.

The interior ministry has presented a list of convicts to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose appeals against their sentences are pending or the courts have given them stay orders, prohibiting authorities to implement their executions, the source said.

Earlier on Monday, a high court bench in the garrison city of Rawalpindi gave a stay order against the execution of five convicts who were involved in an attack on an army camp in Gujrat in 2012.

At least six militants have been hanged so far in Pakistan after the prime minister lifted a six-year-long moratorium on death penalties on Wednesday, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.

They had been handed death penalties for their involvement in the attacks on the army headquarters in 2009 and former President Pervez Musharraf in 2003.

The decision to remove moratorium on the death penalties came after terrorists of Pakistani Taliban attacked an army-run public school in northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar, leaving 149 killed, including at least 133 children.

Prime Minister Sharif on Monday held a meeting with the government's legal team and sought legal opinions on how to remove legal hurdles quickly, the source said.

The prime minister directed the legal team to proactively pursue cases and file review petitions against stay orders in the court so that trials could be completed and the terrorists could be executed at the earliest.

As Prime Minister Sharif approved implementation of the executions in terrorism-related cases, the federal government has reportedly asked all provincial governments to collect details of all convicts on death row.

Security has also been tightened for jails across Pakistan in view of the possible hanging of the convicted militants.