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Benazir pleads for child convicts on death row

Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto today urged the new military regime to suspend the death sentences of child convicts and to modify the law to prevent its imposition in the future. ''Pakistan's penal system should be rehabilitating these children, not subjecting them to torture,'' the twice-dismissed former prime minister said in a statement issued by her Pakistan People's Party in Islamabad.

Bhutto, who lives in self-imposed exile in London since being convicted on corruption charges last April, said in a statement that, according to the Human Rights Watch, 55 children were on the death row in Pakistan as of February 1998. Another 3,700 children were in prison on different charges, the Human Rights Watch report on juvenile justice in Pakistan said.

Bhutto said the abuse of children by law enforcement agencies was ''reprehensible''. She urged the new military regime ''to rid our law enforcement and judicial agencies of individuals who commit crimes against children.''

UNI

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