Karachi : Pakistan may achieve the infamous milestone of becoming one of the world’s top executioners, with almost 300 inmates already put to death this year and thousands more waiting.

Pakistan’s independent Human Rights Commission says 295 people have been hanged in the country — a new record — since December last year, while Amnesty International, puts the number of the executed prisoners at 299.

Abdul Basit, a paraplegic man who was convicted of murder, would have become the 300^th on Nov. 25, but his execution was delayed after the Pakistani president intervened. An execution warrant had been issued for Abdul Basit three times so far. He was to be hanged on July 29. How a man unable to stand and reliant on a wheelchair was convicted of murder in the first place could be a question, nevertheless the Pakistani jail authorities are adamant about carrying out his inhuman and unlawful hanging.

“The hanging of a wheelchair-bound prisoner simply cannot be conducted in a humane and dignified manner as required by Pakistani and international law. Proceeding with Abdul Basit’s execution in the circumstances will offend against all norms of civilized justice,” the rights group’s chairwoman, Zohra Yusuf, said in a statement.

The outspoken group has taken a principled approach to defending the rights of Pakistan’s death row prisoners.

Pakistan’s nearly 300 executions (and counting) this year would put it in second place after Iran and Saudi Arabia. This year, Saudi Arabia has executed at least 151 people, while Iran has put to death almost 700, says Amnesty.

Pakistan’s record on executions this year is beyond belief. Before December 2014, the country had not carried out a single execution in six years.

Islamabad lifted its moratorium on the death penalty shortly after Taliban militants stormed a school in Peshawar, killing 150 people — including 130 schoolchildren. The horrific attack shocked the nation and triggered countrywide protests and demands to rein in the Taliban’s campaign of terror and violence.

As media and public pressure grew, the Pakistani military and political leadership restored capital punishment and announced military courts to fast-track the trials of terror suspects.

At first, the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif opted to execute only terror convicts, but soon bowed pressure from Islamist parties and Mullahs who demanded executions for all kinds of death row convicts — a move that drew condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union, Amnesty International and other groups.

Human rights groups say the government is ignoring its responsibilities to reform the legal system. They say that the circumstances that prompted the suspension of capital punishment in the first place have not changed after six years. They say that the deeply flawed criminal justice system continues to pose the threat of wrongful convictions.

Rights groups also argue that there is no evidence to suggest any correlation between the death penalty and reducing crime rates.

According to the Justice Project Pakistan, a Lahore-based non-profit law firm that helps poor people in the legal system, more than 8,000 people are currently on death row. Pakistan’s government, says there are 6,000 awaiting execution.

In September, Pope Francis called for the global abolition of the death penalty in his address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

“The golden rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development,” Francis said in his speech to Congress.

“This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred.”

Some people feel that the Catholic Church in Pakistan should be more vocal. Despite Pope Francis’ clear and unambiguous stance on capital punishment, the Catholic Church in Pakistan has failed to take a stand against the record numbers of executions in the country this year, they say. But things on the ground in Pakistan may not be so simple, others point out. Only recently a Christian owned TV channel was burnt to the ground in Karachi.

  Catholic Church, pakistan