Keep the death sentence suspended

LAHORE: Capital punishment enjoys huge support in Pakistan. The prime minister’s adviser on national security and foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, said that the “moratorium is legal and we are debating whether to continue the stay on execution or not”. It appears that a sizeable number of people in the present government don’t oppose the restoration of the death penalty in Pakistan — for them lots of people should be sent to the gallows. However, there is no doubt that the Pakistani criminal justice system is sordid and can easily be manipulated by the rich and the corrupt. In such a situation, restoration of the death penalty may send innocent people to the gallows.

Human rights groups have been sharply critical about the quality of trial justice in Pakistan and have raised concerns about the high number of teenagers on death row.

I believe that the argument of deterrence to crime rate is just a myth. If we look at continental Europe, most of the countries there have abolished death penalty and the crime rate is minimal except in a few. There is a mix of evidence on the correlation between the death penalty and the rate of crime in a society. Many countries in the world, such as Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland, do not practise capital punishment but have low crime rates. I can safely hold that death penalty is not a factor in crime prevention. Furthermore, it can also be said that economic and social circumstances actually help to control and minimise crime in a society.

All these issues need to be debated freely and in keeping with the traditions of earnest discussion. That is the purpose of a moratorium. If only executions are put on hold and matters are pushed under the carpet, Pakistan will make its present embarrassing situation more intractable.

Sarmad Ali

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.

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