During most of his 18 years in jail, Mirza-Tahir Hussain lived quite literally in the shadow of the noose.

By some cruel and perhaps deliberate twist, the gallows at the Central Jail, Rawalpindi, a steel structure with a tin roof capable of hanging two or three men at once, are built in a courtyard so close to the death-row cells that inmates can actually see the condemned being led up to the platform and hear the trap door falling.

During Mr Hussain’s long incarceration he estimates that 50 of his fellow inmates were executed, several of them his friends and cellmates.

He said that he would try to comfort the condemned men, telling them to “keep faith in Almighty Allah and be strong” before they were taken away to a special cell the night before their execution. Some went calmly, others lost control and had to be dragged away shouting and screaming.

On execution nights the whole prison, more than 5,000 inmates, would fall unnaturally quiet. Inmates turned off their televisions and radios, and talked in hushed voices. Many prayed.

The condemned man can receive one last visitor. He is given tea and biscuits. Before sunrise he is allowed to wash and shave. Then he is led handcuffed to the gallows. Mr Hussain said that prisoners could hear some of them shouting political slogans or praising Allah before hoods were placed over their heads. Equally audible was the subsequent sound of the trap door crashing down.

After the hanging, the body is taken to the prison hospital to prepare the death certificate, and within an hour it is handed over to the dead man’s family for burial. “It is very traumatic for all the prisoners,” Mr Hussain said. “It takes about three days before the prison returns to normal.”

Pakistan was among the top five nations for carrying out the death penalty last year. According to Amnesty International, at least 2,148 people were executed last year, the majority in China (1,770), Iran (94), Saudi Arabia (86), the US (60) and Pakistan (31). Figures are very hard to verify in some countries, particularly China, because of official secrecy surrounding them.

More than 20,000 people are estimated to be on death row around the world. There are vigorous abolition campaigns in most of these countries.

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