The Supreme Court of Pakistan has urged both federal and provincial governments to reconsider policies and enact or amend existing laws to align with international standards, aiming to minimise the duration of death row prisoners’ detention in death cells.
In a nine-page judgment authored by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, the court highlighted the prolonged and often inhumane conditions faced by death row inmates, noting that many prisoners remain in death cells for years, sometimes even decades, due to delays in the judicial process and subsequent execution of sentences.
The ruling came during the hearing of a criminal review petition filed by Ghulam Shabbir, a convict who has been imprisoned for 34 years, that included 24 years spent in a death cell.
The Supreme Court partly allowed the review petition, converting Shabbir’s death sentence to life imprisonment, citing the prolonged delay as a factor that should not lead to double punishment.
