The number of pending appeals for the death penalty drops from 384 to 107; 449 resolved and 172 new cases since October 26, 2024
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has decided to dispose of all pending death penalty appeals within the next 45 days, the court announced on Wednesday.
The decision was taken at the monthly meeting of the Action Plan for Reforms, chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi. The session was attended by the president and secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association, as well as other relevant officials.
During the meeting, officials updated the participants on the progress of case categorization, which is expected to be completed within two months. A barcode system for case tracking will be fully implemented within the next 15 days. The session also considered jail appeals in death penalty and criminal cases.
According to the briefing paper, when CJP Afridi took office, 384 death penalty appeals were pending as of October 26, 2024. This number has now fallen to 107 pending appeals. Since this date, 172 new appeals have been filed and 449 appeals have been resolved.
The court also considered life imprisonment appeals, which stood at 4,160 when CJP Afridi took office and have now fallen to 3,608. A timetable for resolving life imprisonment appeals will be drawn up once the death penalty appeals are completed.
It was decided that prison requests for convicts aged 80 or over would be given priority. Officials noted that a large portion of court records had been digitized and CJP Afridi thanked the Bar for providing electronic copies of petitions and supporting e-filing.
