Since the lifting of moratorium on execution in 2014, 477 people have been hanged. A recent campaign titled ‘Bas kar do’ by Justice Project Pakistan attempted to humanise the people behind these numbers and tell their stories in cities that host central jails.

Another aspect of the campaign was generating a debate and discussion on the death penalty.

They did this by collaborating with Azad Theatre, and dramatising the life of different people on death row.

The play, Intezaar, revolved around some core issues in Pakistan’s justice system, namely faulty investigation, police torture, lack of good public prosecution and various hiccups in communication that have led to innocent people being hanged.

"We wanted to go to communities that are likely to be affected by loopholes in our criminal justice system and add nuance to the way they view death penalty in Pakistan. There is a lot of black and white as they are led to believe," says Rimmel Mohydin, Head of Communications for Justice Project Pakistan.

The play was held on the streets in Sukkur and Hyderabad and in closed public spaces in Sahiwal and Multan. The idea was to create a street performance to reach people from a low-income background, where the audience is close to the actors and interact with them.

Mohydin states, "The death penalty is systematically used against people who can’t afford proper legal advice because they rely on state defense lawyers -- on people who are already overburdened and underpaid, and have very little motivation to represent their client to the best of their abilities."

Justice Project Pakistan also wanted to take the idea beyond the educated, urban centres, where they feel it already has a certain degree of acceptance.

Their campaign concluded in Karachi on October 10, which is also the international day against death penalty.

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Abdul Basit, played by Nadeem Abbas is a paraplegic whose hanging was stopped last minute on a technicality in the court manual -- the prisoner has to be able to walk to the gallows.

Basit contracted tubercular meningitis in prison and has been paralysed waist down. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 for murdering an uncle of a woman he was in a relationship with. He has maintained his innocence.

Actor Nadeem Abbas went and met him in prison to get to know the person. He discovered that they both enjoy painting. "He started making calligraphy in jail and got better over time. While I was there, he gave a piece of his art to a visiting lady guard."

What stayed with Abbas of the visit was not the atmosphere of the prison but how the visiting guests were treated. When he went to the prison, Basit’s mother was there too.

"It felt the families, mothers and wives, who were there to see their loved ones were being punished too," he described the scene. "We had gone to meet them and felt we too were criminals. They made us sit in a small room on the floor and then checked us properly. Even if I had a hundred rupee note, they kept it with them and gave it back later."

In the play, Basit is being carried to the gallows by a police officer. He is placed on the stand and the noose is put around his neck. It is at this moment that a lawyer, an activist and human rights defender, shows up wearing black gown and tells the policeman in charge that Basit cannot be hanged. She is the hero of the moment as the audience clapped.

Maybe this is how the scene also played out in real life.

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The story of Zulfiqar Ali Khan, a naval officer convicted of murdering robbers in self-defence, is portrayed in another play. The character, played by Bilal Ahmed, depicts the prisoners on death row grappling with the idea that for them death is nearer than most.

As Khan continues to educate himself in prison, and teaches others too, his fellows ask him about the point of possessing degrees in jail -- where death is their ultimate end. He delves on the importance of education and knowledge. A model prisoner in the play and in real life, as he is taken for his execution his only regret is that he was unable to complete another degree.

Ahmed says that when researching the death penalty for the play I was told by people from the Justice Project Pakistan that only a few percentage of people hanged are actually criminals. "Some of the people on the death row, like Zulfiqar Ali Khan, can be brought back to society."

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Another performance is based on the story of 15-year-old Muhammad Shafique, who was arrested for kidnapping and murdering a child that lived in a building he was a caretaker at. Using his story, the play shows how at times pressure is built by politicians on the police to make an arrest.

Soon after the murder, a politician arrives on stage, announcing and assuring the child’s crying parents before a television camera that the murderer will soon be nabbed. This was a comment on the hyped-up coverage of such events.

The police then use torture to get a confession and knowingly manipulate their investigation to show that the person they have arrested is over 15 years of age. The method of police investigations and idea of torture used as a consistent mechanism was shown in various ways during the play -- the idea being that the system can be easily manipulated.

This message resonated with the audience, who laughed at the politician and after the play said that the police did play a significant role in wrongful convictions. For a lot of people in the audience though, the play was the first time they had come across a debate on death penalty.

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Shahida Parveen, a housewife who had come to watch the play in Sahiwal, said that she definitely condemned death penalty for people under age 18. "Young people are being treated cruelly and the police should make more effort to do justice. They exist for our protection but wrongfully convict people."

Muhammad Adil, 16, after watching the play said he had first come across the issue of death penalty in a school debate. The first year student in Multan believed the death penalty should only exist for people who have committed the crime and said that from a religious point of view punishment for a crime was necessary.

Most people present though said that while they had been aware of having a Central Jail in their cities, they had never thought about what happens there. The idea of police injustice though resonated with a crowd that seemed well aware of it.