Execution rules changed in Punjab

LAHORE: The rules for carrying out the death penalty have been changed in the province of Punjab in an effort to expedite the execution process.

According to jail sources, an inmate on death row maybe executed immediately after a black warrant is issued.

According to the previous rules there was a time-frame of 14-21 days from when the black warrant was issued and the execution was carried out.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced on Wednesday that the moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases had been lifted. The announcement came a day after Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants carried out a brutal attack at the Army Public School in Peshawar killing 141 people mostly children.

According to the sources, while lifting the moratorium on death penalty, the federal government has asked all the four provincial governments to process the cases of those on death row so that their death warrants or black warrants could be issued on a priority basis.