Islamist protests after mass death-row reprieve on Benazir Bhutto birthday

by amyjudd | July 4, 2008 at 12:09 pm | 410 views | 6 comments

Islamists protested today over the decision to reprieve 7,000 death row inmates and change their sentences to life imprisonment in honour of Benazir Bhutto's birthday.

This is one of the biggest amnesties in modern history.

The Cabinet this week approved the reprieve in a special gesture designed to mark the life of the former Prime Minister, who was assassinated late last year and would have turned 55 last month.

Ms Bhutto's Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP), which swept the national elections after her death, now leads a four-party coalition government.

Amnesty International said the reprieve, which will come into force after being rubber-stamped by President Musharraf, would benefit almost one third of the world’s death row population, which is estimated to be around 24,000. Pakistan is believed to have the largest number of prisoners on death row anywhere in the world.

However, radical Mullahs called on Muslims to protest against the clemency, which they claimed was “un-Islamic”. They warned the government not to interfere in matter of Islamic Sharia.

Maulana Fazalur Rehman, the chief of Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam, which is part of the ruling coalition, has urged the government to revoke the decision, and Islamic leaders said a conference of religious groups was being held at Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque on July 6 to finalise a plan to protest.

The Mullahs have also challenged the decision in the courts, saying under Islamic laws only relatives of murder victims could pardon the offender. In the past, wealthier convicts have often benefitted from this provision and escaped a death sentence by paying compensation to the victim’s family.

The Islamist protest came as came as hundreds of fundamentalist demonstrators ratcheted up the pressure further on President Musharraf today by gathering outside the mosque to mark the year anniversary of the Red Mosque seige.

Flag this story

Upload

Make your good story a great story. Click here to add your photos & video to this story.

Crowd Power

Scan the web to add photos and videos to this story or add them from the NowPublic Archive.

Rachel Nixon

at 12:23 on July 4th, 2008

news wanted:

I think this is an important story and would benefit from other NowPublic contributors working on it. I've flagged it as News Wanted and invite others in relevant locations to look for more evidence.

René

at 14:51 on July 4th, 2008

good stuff:

24,000 on Pakistan's Death Row? Are they all murderers? or... are some in on what we in the West would call 'spurious' charges?

René

at 14:52 on July 4th, 2008

Are some condemned for 'apostasy'?

hussain

at 02:36 on July 5th, 2008

It is difficult to differentiate between real murderers, etc. However, one thing is clear that it is misuse of power on part of the Pakistan prime minister because all the condemned prisoners granted amnesty have been convicted by courts of the country in accordance with the law of the land. Therefore, one person should not have not granted blanket amnesty to the convicted persons in this manner.

The top court of the country has already taken notice of the matter and has summoned top legal minds of the government to clarify the situation. Let's see what happens with the announcement by the prime minister?

However, one thing is clear that this type of amnesty is not allowed in Islam and this act on part of the prime minsiter of Pakistan is tantamount to ridiculing the Islamic law. This is not just claim of Mullahs, as has been stated in the story, rather it is a fact that Islam does not allow grant of reprieve by a ruler in this way.

The story clearly seems to be biased against Muslims. The use of term 'fundamentalist' is inappropriate because nobody can claim to be follower of a faith until he/she believes in fundamentals of that very faith and if a Muslim believes in fundamentals of Islam, it should not be referred to in a derogatory manner. Many people sympathise with condemned prisoners but one wonders why they ignore the agony through which the families of murdered persons would have gone through after killing of their near and dear ones.

rumana husain

at 04:02 on July 5th, 2008

Rene, it says "one third of the world’s death row population, which is estimated to be around 24,000", which clearly means that 7,000 are in Pakistan and the other 17,000 in the rest of the world. capital punishment must be abolished everywhere in the world as who knows how many out of the 'condemned' are in due to false implications and charges any way.