ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has cleared the backlog of almost all death penalty appeals filed before the end of 2025, Chief Justice Yahya Afridi said on Thursday, describing the development as part of broader efforts to improve the country’s criminal justice system.
The announcement came during the National Conference on Prison Reforms at the Supreme Court, where the chief justice said the court had accelerated the disposal of death appeals after he was struck by the plight of a death row inmate whose appeal had remained pending for years.
Delays in Pakistan’s criminal justice system have long contributed to prison overcrowding and prolonged incarceration of undertrial prisoners and convicted inmates awaiting appeals.
“When we embarked on this journey to address death appeals, we had cases pending of death appeals filed in 2015 and, by the grace of God, we’ve been able to decide 606 death appeals till 30th of June 2026,” he said.
“You’ll also be pleased to know that all cases filed prior to 31st of December 2025 have been decided barring three cases which are fixed for Monday and Tuesday.”
The chief justice said 70 death appeals had been filed between Jan. 1 and Jun. 30 this year, of which 52 had already been decided, leaving just about 20 pending.
Justice Afridi said the issue had become a personal priority after meeting a death row inmate during a visit to the central jail in Dera Ismail Khan shortly after assuming office as chief justice.
“I asked him, do you have clean drinking water? Do you have adequate food? Do you have access to health care?” he recalled.
“In response, he looked at me and without hesitation said, ‘Sir, I do not need food, water to drink or health care. Please ensure that my death appeal pending in the court since 2017 is decided.’“
“That was not an inmate addressing his Chief Justice,” he continued. “It was one human being asking the other whether the system responsible for his life had remembered him at all or had forgotten about him.”
The chief justice said the progress on death appeals was “very encouraging, but not enough,” adding that the judiciary still had “a long journey to go.”
He also acknowledged shortcomings in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, saying existing mechanisms such as judicial jail inspections and criminal justice coordination committees had “not produced the outcome aligning with the urgency of the problem.”
“We must acknowledge this plainly because reform begins with honesty,” he said.
The chief justice said prisons reflected the performance of the entire criminal justice system, from police investigations and prosecutions to court proceedings and called for greater cooperation between the judiciary, provincial governments and other institutions responsible for prison administration.
Prisons are a provincial subject under Pakistan’s Constitution, with responsibility for prison administration resting with provincial governments.
The Supreme Court’s conference on prison reforms was also attended and addressed by the chief ministers of all four provinces.
