Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in Pakistan on the latest executions in that country; and if he will raise this issue at the current session of the UN Human Rights Council.

We regularly raise our concerns on the death penalty in Pakistan at the highest levels and have pressed the Government of Pakistan to restore the moratorium on the death penalty. It is our longstanding policy to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle. Along with our EU counterparts in Pakistan, we have raised concerns about Pakistan’s decision to resume executions as well as concerns on a number of individual cases. We continue to raise our concerns at a bilateral and multilateral level. During the current session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), the UK welcomed growing global support for the UN resolution seeking a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.