Its rather unfair of the writer to generalise every activist working around the #SaveShafqat campaign as a liberal
KARACHI: This is with reference to Omar R Quraishi’s article of March 18 titled, “Why Fatima Bhutto and other liberals are wrong on the execution issue”. Its rather unfair of the writer to generalise every activist working around the #SaveShafqat campaign as a liberal who is against the death penalty.
The only issue being raised in Shafqat’s case is his age, not the severity of his crime. If you under law cannot deem a 14-year-old to be smart enough to choose a party to vote for or a person to marry, then how can you deem a 14-year-old to be able to understand the gravity of his actions and a crime. And guess what, the law does not. People need to read up on the Juvenile Ordinance 2002 and the Convention on Rights of a Child which Pakistan has signed.
You cannot give the death penalty to a juvenile.
Muhammad Jibran Nasir
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2015.
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