ABSTRACT
The December 16, 2014 terrorist attack on school children at the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, was one of the deadliest in the country's history. The attack, carried out by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), left the entire nation reeling in shock. In a significant political development, a day after the school attack, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to lift the moratorium on death sentence executions of persons involved in terrorism. The call for a moratorium on the death sentence originated in the West and it is relatively new. On Pakistan's political stage, the decision to lift the moratorium was difficult. The moratorium on the death sentence in a way complicates and contravenes the Islamic legal right of the victim when life and the political sensibility necessary to a meaningful life are extremely vulnerable in Pakistan, the nation is confronted with the profound question of death sentence executions. The legitimacy of death sentence executions remains contested and controversial.
