Ban on death penalty moratorium government's negligence: Ex-judge

As the Pakistan government is wrapping up mercy appeals of convicts after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif revoked the moratorium on death penalty, former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry termed the moratorium as the government's negligence, media reported Thursday.

The former chief justice stated that "it should not have been enforced", according to a report in the News International.

He was addressing a condolence meeting held by the Peshawar High Court for the victims of Tuesday's massacre in a Peshawar school.

According to the former chief justice, the lifting of the ban will help in controlling criminal activity in the country.

Justice (retd) Chaudhry said that despite mercy appeals of approximately 400 convicts being dismissed, the cases were still pending.

Earlier, during his address, the former chief justice expressed the hope that the army would carry out effective action against those elements involved in the brutal terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar that left 148 people, most of them students, dead.