6,161 prisoners on death row in Pakistani jails, reveals report

LAHORE: Pakistani prisoners hold 6,161 inmates on death row in total by the end of 2024, reflecting a slight increase compared to last year’s 6,039, according to the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) report.

The Lahore-based non-profit legal action firm released the annual statistics report, Death Penalty in Pakistan: Data Mapping Capital Punishment, on the World Day Against the Death Penalty.

According to the report — incorporated data from 132 jails across Pakistan — the Punjab holds the highest number of prisoners with capital punishment i.e. 2505, followed by KP at 2311 prisoners on death row.

Moreover, the report revealed that Sindh holds 557 prisoners on death row, Balochistan holds 398, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir have 390 prisoners waiting for capital punishment.

The gender-wise distribution in Puanjab shows 2490 male and 15 female inmates are on death row. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa jails house 2297 males and 14 female death row prisoners while Sindh has 557 males with zero female prisoners.

The report further revealed that 364 male and 4 female inmates are waiting for executions in Balochistan, while 381 males and 9 females in AJK.

The report suggested that 518 people have been executed since Decemebr 2014, however, since Decemebr 2019, zero executions have been reportedly carried out.

“Declining rate of executions or no executions, however, do not deny the possibility of executions in future as currently there are 1,400+ prisoners on death row whose appeals are pending before the Supreme Court,” the NGO wrote.

Pakistan was ranked as one of the highest users of the death penalty globally which is a sobering statistic highlighting the urgent need for reform, according to the report.