Pak executes 100th convict, Amnesty slams action

Pakistan today hanged its 100th convict since a moratorium on death penalty was lifted in December last year, prompting rights group Amnesty International to call it as a "shameful milestone".
Munir Hussain, a death row convict was hanged in Vehari district jail in the Punjab province early morning, authorities said.
He was sentenced to death in a double murder case. He had killed his nephew and niece over a land dispute in 2000.
Hussain became the 100th death-row prisoner to be executed since a moratorium on death penalty was lifted by Pakistan in December last year.
Reacting to the execution, the London-based rights group said Pakistan is gaining a reputation as one of the leading executioners in the world.

"In reaching this shameful milestone of 100 executions in just over four months, the Pakistani authorities are showing total disregard for human life. Our concerns are heightened by manifestly unfair trials in many cases that fall well below minimum standards set by international law," David Griffiths, Amnesty International's Deputy Asia Pacific Director said in a statement.

"This conveyor belt of killing will do nothing to address the root causes of crime and terrorism, and must end immediately," he added.
"Executions in Pakistan have picked up pace alarmingly in recent weeks, and are now an almost daily occurrence. If the government does not immediately re-impose a moratorium on executions, there is no telling how many more lives will be lost this year." Griffiths said.

Pakistan has sent almost hundred death row convicts to gallows since it lifted the moratorium on capital punishment after a deadly militant attack on an army-run school in Peshawar on December 16 last year.