[JURIST] Several human rights groups, including Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy websites], on Thursday urged the Pakistani government to halt the execution of the first civilian for a non-terror related offense since 2008. The rights groups claim the execution violates Pakistan’s own official policy. Shoaib Sarwar is a death row prisoner who was convicted of murder in 1998 [press release]. He has exhausted his appeal process [press release] and is scheduled to be executed February 3. AI believes that the pending execution of Sarwar is especially troubling as Sarwar’s lawyers assert that he has not been convicted of any offense related to terrorism or sentenced by an anti-terrorism court. Rights groups believe that if Sawar is executed it will set a very negative precedent allowing the execution of civilians who have not been convicted of crimes related to terrorism. HRW called the pending execution a reversion to the “odious practice” [press release] of sending people to the gallows after a six-year unofficial moratorium and urged Pakistan to reinstate the moratorium as well.

Last month Pakistan lifted a six- year moratorium on the death penalty [JURIST report] and has since executed 20 individuals on death row. The reinstatement of the death penalty was only to be applied to terrorism-related cases, as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [official profile] believed that this would help end terrorism in the country. Earlier this month, AI called on [JURIST report] Pakistan to end what has been an extreme increase in executions following the Peshwar school attack. Also earlier this month Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain [official website] signed into law [JURST report] anti-terrorism legislation that established military courts for the hearing of civilian terrorism related cases. Also this month the Pakistan Supreme Court overturned [JURIST report] the release of terrorist suspect Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. Lakhvi, head of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, who was the alleged organizer of the 2008 Mumbai attacks [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] that killed 165 individuals. In July Pakistan passed [JURIST report] a strict anti-terrorism bill that allowed police to use lethal force, to search buildings without a warrant and to detain suspects at secret facilities for up to 60 days without charge “on reasonable apprehension of commission of a scheduled offense.” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif claimed [JURIST report] in September 2013 that the country’s anti-terrorism laws would be amended to more effectively combat modern threats.