Two minor boys, Muhammad Rafique and Sohail Fida are on death row having been awarded capital punishment by a court in the Swat district of Pakistan.
Though capital punishment is abolished in Pakistan, under Pakistan’s Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2002, these two minor boys do not fall under the jurisdiction of the ordinance and are therefore on the road to their execution.
The Swat district of Pakistan in under the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) which follows different rules compared to the rest of Pakistan. Under the constitution of Pakistan Article 247, in order to extend any law to a PATA region, the government has issue a separate notification regarding the same.
The government has not felt the urgency to issue this notification thus far. The result, two young boys may have to pay for this negligence with their lives.
[DAWN]
“[Asia Child Rights]” <[email protected]>