A constitutional petition has been filed before the Supreme Court of Pakistan with the request to abolish death penalty in the country. The petitioner, Wattan Party provincial President, Basim Khan contended that due to lack of just, fair and reasonable prosecution, death penalty is unconstitutional and pleaded to prevent wrongful or illegal convictions.
The petitioner's counsel, Barrister Zafarullah Khan, contended that presently out of 213 countries of the world only 68 countries are in favour of death penalty including China, Pakistan, US, India and Japan. Whereas 17 out of 52 states of the US have already abolished the death penalty.
He further said under article 45 of the constitution, president's power to grant pardon, mostly death sentences are commuted to life imprisonment due to political influence and this reprieve is not for everybody. The petitioner, therefore, prayed to the court to abolish death penalty being unconstitutional and violative to article 9 of the constitution.