Pakistan Allows Death Penalty Ban To Expire

Up to 450 convicts awaiting execution

Pakistan's new government has allowed a ban on the death penalty to expire, in a move condemned as "shocking and retrograde" by London-based rights group Amnesty International.

A presidential order imposing a moratorium on the implementation of the capital punishment, issued in 2008, expired on June 30.

Under the previous government led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), no one except a soldier convicted by court martial was put to death since 2008.

The PPP suffered a crushing defeat in elections on May 11, which swept to power the centre-right Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.