Though the likelihood of executing an innocent
person is too strong to be ignored, yet the death penalty saves lives of
potential victims in future. In other words, there is taking of certain risks
in exchange for safety. The opponents of death sentence claim lots of innocent
people are wrongly executed because of the flawed methodology employed for
evidence gathering by the investigators.
In fact, the resulted delaying tactics involve a
number of loopholes that are disguisedly advantageous for the offenders who
manage to walk away free. The delayed justice is no justice as it is caused by
the obsolete/age old procedure in the judicial system. Hence, there is a state
of compromised merit system leading to lack of transparency.
Unless the executive/ the judicial administrators
take extra precautions, the innocent people and their rights would continue to
remain unprotected. And, in some case, the chronic condition tends to cost
their lives of innocent people needlessly.
Furthermore, there are those who argue that the
capital punishment amounts to brutalizing; some label the penalty as
“legalized murder.”
Nevertheless, there is
certain benefit of having deterred the potential offenders or repeat criminals
through death penalty, thus it’s absolutely essential to protect the society.
Legally speaking, capital
punishment is still part of the law, which means that as long as parliament
does not amend the law, Pakistan is under no obligation to “not to carry out
sentences” awarded under it.
Maybe, Pakistan is liable as
a signatory to the international conventions, but is under no obligation or
pressure to not executing those who have been tried and found guilty.
Admittedly, there are
certain economic benefits of extremely high value, as the GSP Plus status was given
by the European Union to Pakistan.
The problem is if the moratorium
is not lifted, the terrorism can’t be dealt with effectively. In other words, there
is more benefit in going ahead with hanging the terrorists along with their
abettors and facilitators.
It’s about time for
executing those who have been awarded the death penalty after they have been
heard at all levels, right from the trial court to the superior courts, and they
have also gone ahead unsuccessfully with appeals exhausting review petitions as
well. After their sentences are confirmed through a prescribed sequence of
events, there isn’t much left to save them from getting hanged.
The question arises for protection
for the innocent: The Fair Trial Act and the Protection of Pakistan Act will
actually protect innocent people from prosecution. The Fair Trial Act provides
the state the opportunity to identify actual suspects: people against whom
evidence is collected through surveillance that is considerably accurate. Yet
again, it all depends on the lines on which a thorough investigation has been
carried out to collect genuine intelligence permissible as evidence in the
court.
Religiously speaking: The
Quran regarding the death penalty clearly states,"...Take not life, which
God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He command
you, so that you may learn wisdom" (6:151). Therefore, the death
penalty (capital punishment) is a reasonable option to save potential victims’
lives.
Furthermore, with regard to
legality of capital punishment, Pakistan is ranked fifth after the People’s
Republic of China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The fact is
European Union has no problem with it, so it continues to do business with
Iran, Saudi Arabia, China and USA.
Actually, “Human Rights
Watch” opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent
cruelty. Pakistan’s use of the death penalty is inconsistent with international
human rights law, according to statements of United Nations human rights
experts and various UN bodies.
Human rights law upholds
every human being’s inherent right to life; it limits the death penalty to those
serious crimes that result in death. In Pakistan’s case, terrorists’ activity
has killed many thousands which is very serious matter indeed. Killing innocent
children by the barbaric terrorists is highly intolerable.
There
was an expired moratorium which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government did
not extend, however, a ban on executions of over 8000 convicts awaiting
execution was maintained. Nevertheless,
the lifting of the moratorium in the death penalty has angered the European
Union (EU); the demand of immediate restoration of moratorium has also angered
Pakistanis.
Despite the immediate demand for restoring the
moratorium; Pakistan will not restore the moratorium after what had happened in
Peshawar.
Obviously,
the EU fails to take into consideration Pakistan’s number one foe which is
terrorism; rather it should offer a helping hand to facilitate the elimination
of bad guys.
Death
penalty may not be the best deterrence against the suicide attackers because
they lose their lives right away, yet it would definitely scare their abettors
and financiers.
War
on terror will receive a real blow once the execution of the convicted
terrorists is allowed to continue uninterrupted all the way till its logical
ending.
Hopefully,
the long awaited normalcy will return followed by economic national betterment.
Then the EU may advocate for the humanitarianism as much as it wants.
Currently, the jailed
convicts awaiting executions are being held due to appeal-scenario; many have
been enjoying because of the moratorium on death penalty.
There is a lot of talk about
“military courts;” this development is against the spirit of democracy. Under
the ongoing negative circumstances, non military courts/anti terrorism courts
have not been fully successful in providing quicker justice, therefore the
dream of rooting out terrorism never really came true.
Since the terrorists cannot
be permitted to be roaming free among the vulnerable populace, they need to be nabbed
to be put to death within a reasonable time frame in the best interest of the
entire nation.
Political
parties have already developed consensus to setup military courts for the
period of two years. The house is also expected to approve a bill to amend the
Pakistan Army Act.
With the recent passage of Constitutional Twenty-first Amendment Bill to provide a
constitutional cover to military courts, the scenario will be a different one.
Let’s
wait for the dust to settle in favour of perpetual peace.
