Mr Saroop Ijaz’s thought-provoking piece on the death penalty, titlted “Stop the machinery of death” (November 18) provides an alternative aspect of a very important penal policy issue. While the arguments make a lot of sense, there are certain very important factors which must be kept in mind before doing away with capital punishment entirely.
There are three elementary questions which each penal jurisdiction requires to be settled and they are: what to punish, how to punish and how much to punish. First, the state declares certain acts as offences carrying a punitive sanction. Then, there are various incarcerating or non-incarcerating punishments and finally, the quantum of punishment is decided based on mitigating factors. Assuming that every murder is punishable by a death sentence is an erroneous presumption as investigators, lawyers and judges ponder each and every aspect before awarding capital punishment. The law also provides for grave and sudden provocation, right of self-defence, etc, awarding lesser punishments keeping all contributing factors in mind.
Without going into any moral or dogmatic assertion on principles of the penal policy, even though morality is inextricably linked with punitive sanctions prevalent in a society, there are four major components of a penal policy: deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation.
Let us now examine the capital punishment in our peculiar environment. Pakistan is a semi-tribal society where the expenditure on law and order is next to nothing. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 13,860 people were murdered in Pakistan in 2011, which is a 30 per cent increase since 2006. This rate is extremely high and police investigation is not of high quality. There is no forensic evidence collection or subsequent prosecution. The police resources and training to combat violent crimes are insufficient. In these circumstances, if the capital punishment is revoked, it will have a catastrophic effect on the criminal justice system. It may well be argued that the absence of better and more scientific investigative techniques is all the more reason for the abolition of capital punishment. The objective reality on ground is that the judges only award death punishment in cases where the evidence is overwhelming. In most cases, life imprisonment is imparted.
One of the main absentees of the criminal justice system is the victim. The presumption that the state will act on behalf of the victim removes the emotional aspect of victimology from the discourse. In a tribal society like ours, people want retribution more than other consideration. In case the offenders are not punished in the proportionate manner, people take law into their own hands to settle scores. Before forming opinions, it is extremely important to conduct a survey of the victims to ascertain how they view the matter.
It may sound a bit callous but the reality remains that we are a country of huge population with meagre resources. While in West, governments can afford to keep inmates locked up for extensive periods of time, we have overcrowded prisons. The living conditions in prisons are also quite dismal. Our population needs education, housing, health care, energy and above all, food security. Keeping murderers in prisons for 20 odd years carries a cost which very few in the country are prepared to pay.
Public opinion in Pakistan should also be gauged before embarking on the journey to abolish capital punishment. The religious mafia has to be dealt with at the very onset. There is little room for reason there. Sadly the liberals of our country are also in the habit of picking Western ideas and start campaigning for their adoption. While there is no harm in adopting fresh ideas and modern concepts, some thought must be given to the ground realities and our own societal framework. While Mr Saroop Ijaz’s article initiates the debate, other dissenting voices must also be heard and given due deliberation in order to find solutions to a very important penal policy issue.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2012.
COMMENTS (12)
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Salem has a point and it important too. Capital punishment has roots in religion since humanity began. Europeans hanged, burned, boiled or quartered people on the flimsiest of excuses. People were hanged for being heretics, Hersey , being witches and so on but it always had a connection with Christianity. @Saira Abbas, taking law into your own hands is a sure way to create a jungle where nobody is safe. One must have a faith in a justice system and strive to create one if it is not there. That is how societies evolve to become tolerant and just.
The author has a reasonable approach to the theme. However, the retribution by the state does not have match the severity of the crime. An eye for eye makes the whole society blind. It should be a well thought out and carefully calibrated punishment. The crime of waging a war on the state may be a different crime as it is a planned, coordinated and mostly a mindless crime that does not discriminate between people. A crime of this sort is different to a crime of passion committed without any premeditation and should have a different response from the penal system. Rehabilitating the individual after an appropriate punishments should also be a priority for the state and society. There are always costs, there always have been in one form or the other. Society has to pay. I believe the death penalty should be awarded for extreme crimes and not always carried out.
I believe in an eye for an eye because I know that if anyone touches a hair on the bodies of my loved ones, let alone kills them, I will only see blood and for those who call capital punishment a medieval practice, i would first like to see them FORGIVE a killer who has murdered one close to them otherwise it's all hollow words for me.
Millions of &&&& Asian Development Bank aid to improve courts, CJP Iftakhar spend on buying a fleet of BMW's, why on earth justice system is nonfunctional while CJP is busy in fixing other institutions?
Excellent Article and a logical answer to liberal scum who impose western ideas by talking nonsense and taking money from them
It is very simple and straightforward If you take life, you should be hanged or killed by the same way.If the blood relative forgive or make settlement by blood money it is up to them. We follow religion Islam which has laws and system to follow. .
Rightly said the death penalty should not be abolished. Human lives are equal and hence demand equal punishment. Those who seek to deny this justice must put themselves in other peoples shoes. In any case Pakistan is a muslim country and there are ways to avoid the penalty. 1)blood money 2) forgiveness from the murdered person's family Providing food and comfort to people who take human lives is unfair
I fully agree with the author. In a society like ours, capital punishment cannot be done away with. We should stop importing each and every idea of the western world. We have our own society, our own culture, character, morals, problems. With the type of (no) law and order, terrorism, sectarianism, extremely poor criminal justice system, low quality prosecution services, deterrence like capital punishment cannot be taken away. Fear of capital punishment must exist in a society like ours. After all its fear that regulates the behaviour of a society. Foremost reason for better law and order in the west is because people are always punished for their crimes unlike Pakistan where crimes and criminals go unpunished.
Pakistan is a semi-tribal and therefore backward society. Your argument is rather than try to move forward and grow out of you we should pander to the regressive. Absurd.
Sir.
With all due respect the police is not there for revenge. It is there for justice. By murdering people, all we are doing is showing that we are no different than the people we condemn. This is not a western idea but an Islamic one. Hazarat Muhammad(S) believed in forgiveness and redemption not in revenge. Otherwise he would have attacked the people who persecuted him when he first preached islam. Certainly we do have overcrowded prisons but we cannot let money influence us when it comes to human beings. Yes some people in prison have commited horrible crimes but plenty of people are also in prison because of bad police work or corruption as you noted. You could easily sentence innocent people to death! The number of people on death row is not big enough that it would hurt our prison system. We should be working on lowering the number of people in our prisons by educating them and giving them skills. killing them will not help. Maybe we are a tribal society that wants revenge but we can be better than that. We cannot just give up and revert to savagery because its easier and more convenient. Doing the right thing is never easier. I apologize if i sound rude. As a police officer you are probably more familiar with this situation than i am but like you said, there is more than one side to this issue.
thank you.
Pakistan is a semi-tribal society where the expenditure on law and order is next to nothing. ...This rate is extremely high and police investigation is not of high quality. There is no forensic evidence collection or subsequent prosecution.
Isn't this a good reason to abolish capital punishment (as the investigation which is not of ahgh quality cannot be always relied upon to nail the real culprit)?
Death sentence should be abolished. It is a medieval punisment that can have no place in a civilised society. In a system that is corrupt at every level (like in the land of pure) it is more likely that the wrong person will be hanged.