DHAKA: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has suspended death sentences passed by controversial new military tribunals, until it rules on the legality of the sentences.

The move directly affects six militants who were facing imminently execution, reports the BBC.

In December Pakistan ended a seven-year moratorium on executions, after militants killed more than 150 pupils and staff at a school in Peshawar.

Since then about 60 death-row inmates have been executed on the orders of civilian courts.

More than 8,000 people have been sentenced to death in Pakistan, human rights groups say.

In March the government announced that all of those who had exhausted the appeals process and pleas for clemency would be executed.

BDST: 1956 HRS, APR 16, 2015
BD/