Pakistan has carried out the first death sentence passed by one of the country's newly-established military courts.

A thirty-year-old man Ashraf Chakar who'd been convicted of killing a policeman, was hanged in Karachi jail in the early hours of Thursday.

His appeal for mercy had been rejected.

The trial and appeal took just nine days.

Human rights groups have complained that such speedy trials could lead to miscarriages of justice.

The military courts were set up this month as part of the government's efforts to combat spiralling ethnic, political and religious violence in Karachi -- Pakistan's largest city.