Pakistan death row convicts bear brunt of torture

As if being sentenced to death is not enough punishment, those on death row in Pakistan are also among those being singled out for abuse by jail personnel. This is according to rights groups that are already up in arms over how torture seems to have become far too common in Pakistani prisons. In September, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HCRP) discovered that three inmates in a Punjabi jail had developed renal ailments after being tortured by jail staff. Two of them are on death row. "Those on death row are considered expendable relative to the fact that they are already condemned," says Rafia Zakaria, a Pakistan-born director at the human rights monitor Amnesty International. There is tacit tolerance of the torture for those facing capital punishment. Explaining the prevailing attitude, rights campaigner Zohra Yusuf says, "They (death row inmates) are guilty of heinous crimes and so do not deserve a humane treatment."