Capital Punishment: International Obligation on Pakistan

This paper examines the compatibility of international human rights law and Islamic law regarding capital punishment in the Pakistani context. Despite the adoption of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by the United Nations in 1989, which aimed to completely abolish the death penalty worldwide, countries continued to practice capital punishment for several offences. The paper highlights Pakistani laws and discusses the challenges that hinder the country from ratifying the Optional Protocol. The paper suggests an adaptable solution to the issue by analysing the restrictions of death penalty under Islamic Law. Principally, both Islamic law and international human rights law consider the protection of life and endurance of justice to be very significant, but the conflict, which has raised the discrepancy is in the priorities between the interests of the individual and the public at large. This paper presents a comprehensive and impartial study to bridge the gap between International Human Rights Law and Pakistani domestic laws. Moreover, ICCPR also requires minimal death penalties in a legal system, it is mandatory for Pakistan, being a member party, to curtail the punishment in the domestic legal system. It seeks to examine the challenges that arise when reconciling these two systems and propose possible solutions.