BRITAIN must end its “aid for executions” to Pakistan after the country brought back the death penalty, legal action charity Reprieve demanded yesterday.

The government recently defended its estimated £130 million yearly anti-narcotics aid programme on what the charity claimed was the mistaken understanding that Pakistan would not resume hangings.

On December 11, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg wrote to Reprieve, which assists some death row prisoners in Pakistan, saying “it is clear that a de facto moratorium (on the death penalty) remains the policy of the Pakistani government.”

He said he was assured of this position following “high-level discussions” with Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the details of which he was “unable to share.”

But Pakistan has since restarted executing people following last week’s school massacre in Peshawar.

The country claimed that the first executions will be of “terrorists,” but some of the first eight prisoners to have a “black warrant” issued in their names have been convicted of offences bearing no relation to terrorism.

A high court judge ruled yesterday that Mr Sharif had no jurisdiction to prevent the execution of Shafqat Hussain, who was arrested in 2004 at the age of 14 and allegedly tortured into making a “confession” before being sentenced to death.

The end of Pakistan’s six-year moratorium on the death penalty also means the lives of at least 112 drug offenders are at risk, including those of six British nationals sentenced to death in trials falling short of international standards.

Last year Britain ceased providing similar support to Iran as the government said it shared the concerns of other European states that “the donations are leading to executions.”

Reprieve death penalty team director Maya Foa said: “The government has repeatedly justified the maintenance of British counter-narcotics aid to Pakistan on the basis of the death penalty moratorium.

“It is now clear ministers were wrong, and lives are at risk.”