Islamabad, July 19 (ANI): The European Union has advised Pakistan to continue its de facto moratorium on the death penalty, else it would greatly weaken Islamabad's case to seek duty-free access to the markets of the 27-nation bloc.
"Any move away from de facto moratorium on the death penalty will be received badly in the EU parliament," The Express Tribune quoted Jean Lambert, Chairperson of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia, as saying.
Lambert, along with a EU parliamentary delegation, while on a three-day trip to Pakistan, met with top government leaders, including Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, and key opposition leaders.
Pakistan has been vying for the status of Generalised System for Preferences (GSP) plus, which will allow select developing countries to export duty-free goods to members of the EU from 2014.
Lambert said the GSP plus was a human rights instrument as well as a trading instrument and carries certain obligations in terms of international agreements on rights, and added that EU parliament's members were of the view that the GSP plus concessions should not be utilised by countries that still have the death penalty.
Lambert clarified, however, that the GSP plus was still being debated in the parliament, and thus, there was no final agreement - the abolition of the death penalty is not yet a formal condition.
Since the PPP-led coalition government came into being, there has been a de facto moratorium on the death penalty as no convicted person has been executed since 2008.
Lambert explained that nobody was talking about bringing forth a bill on the abolition of the death penalty in the Pakistani parliament.
"The EU recognises that the government may find it difficult to move a bill in parliament but the ideal for the EU is that the abolition of the death penalty should be in the statute books," she added. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
