ISLAMABAD, July 14: The Supreme Court was told on Monday that the government had not yet approved a decision to commute all pending death sentences to life imprisonment.

Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum requested the Supreme Court on Monday to grant two weeks’ time, stating that he could not consult the prime minister or the law minister on the matter because both were abroad.

A three-member Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Mohammad Qaim Jan Khan and Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf, is hearing a suo motu case taken up on reports that the decision would benefit 7,000 death-row prisoners.

On June 21 Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani had announced that the government intended to recommend to the president to commute death sentences of all prisoners into life imprisonment as a tribute to Benazir Bhutto.

On July 6, the chief justice had ordered the attorney-general and ministries of interior and law to explain the government’s position on the matter.

A legal expert told Dawn that the apex court had taken action because it could not take decisions on a large number of appeals filed by convicts who had been awarded death sentences.

The court later adjourned the case till August 1.

Meanwhile, the court accepted an application moved by advocate Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Naqvi, requesting to include him as a party in the case.

Mr Naqvi, representing a large number of convicts who had been awarded death sentence in narcotics cases, pleaded that many of them had been awarded capital sentence under the Control of Narcotics Substance Act of 1997 (CNSA) on false charges.

He pleaded that under the act, death sentences could not be awarded as Qisas was not involved because there was no victim. “Therefore, no compensation is payable.”

Terming the award of death sentences unconstitutional, he said that they had “never been prescribed by the Holy Quran or the Sunnah” and urged the court to commute the death sentences awarded to these convicts.

Sixty-two countries in the world still maintain death penalty in both law and practice while 92 countries have abolished it. Only 10 countries retain it, but only for crimes committed in exceptional circumstances, like war crimes. Although 33 other countries maintain death penalty for ordinary crimes, they have not used the maximum punishment for at least a decade.

Pakistan, however, voted against the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly on December 18, 2007.

During the first PPP government under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the life sentence was enhanced to 25 years from 14 years. It was then hoped that the capital punishment would be abolished in future. However, the regime of Gen Ziaul Haq had retained both the 25-year life sentence and the death penalty.

Meanwhile, another bench comprising Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari, Justice Mohammad Akhtar Shabbir and Justice Mohammad Farrukh Mahmud adjourned the hearing till August 11 on federal government appeals against the Lahore High Court’s order disqualifying PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and challenging the candidature of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.