ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Though the European Union has voiced its concerns about capital punishment in Pakistan, the Foreign Office on Thursday expressed the confidence that this issue will not impact the EU Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Plus status for Pakistan.
As 54 executions have been carried out in Pakistan since lifting the moratorium on death penalty in December 2014, the EU has called on Islamabad to reinstitute the moratorium and to respect fully all its international obligations.
“We do not expect that this issue will impact Pakistan’s GSP plus status,” the Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said at her weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday while talking about the EU concerns on capital punishment in Pakistan.
The spokesperson emphatically stated that lifting of moratorium on death sentence is not in violation of any international human rights law.
“Pakistan has its own constitution and legal system which contains death penalty within the parameters of international laws,” she said adding that the fundamental right of the state to protect the lives of its people.
The FO foreign office said that according to article 6 of international covenant on civil and political rights every human being has the right to live and that this right should be protected by law.
Tasnim Aslam said that the actions that Pakistan is taking are in pursuance to this article in order to protect the lives of the people.
The spokesperson said Pakistan is engaged with the European Union and told them clearly its perspective on the matter. She said that the EU also understands Pakistan’s position under which it has removed the moratorium on death sentence.
