Standing united: Lawyers throw weight behind death penalty

Such steps are a need of the hour, says PHCBA president.

PESHAWAR:

Lawyers associations across the province have announced to stand by the government’s decision of lifting the moratorium on capital punishment.

“We completely support Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who lifted the ban on death penalties. Such steps are a need of the hour. Both our religion and the law of the land instruct us to punish criminals,” said Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) President Muhammad Isa Khan while talking to The Express Tribune.

He said that it is high time to send a message out to those who ruthlessly butcher innocent people and are indifferent to the writ of the state. Khan stressed on the need for stringent legislation so that justice can be served and said capital punishment will help in the inhibition of radical behaviour, adding that fear of the law is vital in curbing crime.



District Bar Association President Razaullah Khan said the executions should be carried out without any delay. “The militants deserve to be hanged and so do their supporters,” he added.

Khan said the association will ensure full cooperation of the lawyer community during the court proceedings of cases related to militancy. Khan said the delay is also caused by investigation officers and the process of prosecution itself, which needs to be revised.

“The international community has reservations about the death penalty because they do not have such inhumane murderers in their respective countries. We are at war.

Whoever kills our people should be hanged publicly,” said newly-elected Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council executive committee member Muhammad Ijaz Sabi. Sabi said the police are required to complete the investigation within seven days and produce the challan before the court while the courts are required to complete the trials within 15 days. “The timeframe is never followed and there are many loopholes in the investigation procedures,” he added. Sabi said that the murderers of innocent children should be sent to the gallows within a month and not after years.

Policy for ATC proceedings

Chief Justice of Pakistan Nasirul Mulk visited Peshawar earlier this week and expressed solidarity with lawyers who lost their loved ones in the APS attack. PHCBA urged Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk to formulate a policy in order to speed up pending cases in all anti-terrorism courts (ATC). In this regard, the CJP has called a meeting of all administrative judges of high courts on December 24 in Islamabad.

Section 19 of the Anti-terrorism Act 1997 says the officer-in-charge shall complete the investigation of the case being heard by an ATC within seven working days and submit the report under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2014.