According to an official statement, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has approved the abolishment of moratorium on the execution of death penalty in terrorism-related cases. The moratorium had been in place for the last six years and was part of the plan to achieve Generalized System of Preference (GSP) Plus status to get access for the Pakistani goods across the European markets.Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan has said that ending ban on the execution of death penalty will have no effect on the GSP Plus status granted by the European Union as Pakistan is an important ally in war on terror. He says that there is no legal binding on the country to ban death penalty under United Nations convention and that the previous government of the Pakistan People’s Party had informally imposed a ban on the death penalty which continued during its entire tenure. The federal minister also explained that the GSP Plus status had been granted for 10 years, and that the overall exports to the European Union have increased by $909.07 million during the last nine months.The exports have witnessed an increaseof $5.67 billion during the period between January and September 2014 from $4.76 billion of the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of 19.09 percent after obtaining the status. The textile sector is the major beneficiary of the GSP Plus status as export of textile products have increased by $708.02 million in nine months of the current year.
The government was though expecting an additional $1 billion exports to the EU in one year, the figure had already been achieved in nine months due to the GSPPlus facility.The government is now concentrating onsmall medium entrepreneurs to help them export their products in the international market and is also finalizing equitable strategic trade framework policy 2015, to be announced in the first week of next year.
The genocide of small children at a Peshawar school has saddened the whole nation and voices are being raised even from the civil society and social organisations to end the moratorium on death penalty. Hundreds of convicts are waiting for the implementation of court verdicts in jails. The savage people behind terrorism incidents do not deserve any leniency and those who have still managed to dodge their arrests should be chased and killed to save humanity. Pakistan has suffered over $150 billion losses since war on terror started over one and half decades ago and human losses are unaccountable. The Pakistani economy has been under pressure and security situation is adding insult to injury. In this situation, there are various pressing tasks ahead of the government, including revival of the economy, improving the law and order and elimination of terrorism. The Peshawar incident has unified the nation and a unified action is required to banish the monster of terrorism from the country.