NA resolution calls for public hanging of child molesters

S&T and HR ministers oppose non-binding resolution

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly passed a resolution on Friday calling for the public hanging of convicted child killers and rapists, drawing a quick backlash from at least two federal ministers as well as the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

The non-binding resolution, moved by Parliamentary Affairs State Minister Ali Muhammad Khan, follows a spate of high-profile child sex-abuse cases, which provoked outrage across the country in recent years.

Child killers and rapists "should not only be given the death penalty by hanging, but they should be hanged publicly," Khan told the lower house of parliament. "The Quran commands us that a murderer should be hanged," he added.

Khan maintained that several steps had been taken to protect the children, including the establishment of a child protection centre in the federal capital and ratification of laws such as the Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act.

He said that the prime minister desired death penalty over child abuse. He added that National Assembly's human rights committee opposed the capital punishment when the Zenab Alert Bill was discussed in the committee

K-P recommends public hangings for child abusers

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf spoke against the resolution and said that public hanging would not help in reducing crime. “We cannot put public hanging into practice. It violates the laws of the United Nations,” he said, referring to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Though a majority of lawmakers approved the resolution, Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari stressed it was not sponsored by the government. The resolution "on public hangings was across party lines and not a govt-sponsored resolution but an individual act. Many of us oppose it - our MOHR (human rights ministry) opposes this," Mazari tweeted.

 

The resolution passed in NA today on public hangings was across party lines and not a govt-sponsored resolution but an individual act. Many of us oppose it - our MOHR strongly opposes this. Unfortunately I was in a mtg and wasn't able to go to NA.

— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) February 7, 2020

Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry also took to the micro-blogging website to strongly condemn the resolution. “This is just another grave act … societies act in a balanced way, barbarianism is not answer to crimes … this is another expression of extremism,” he tweeted.

https://twitter.com/fawadchaudhry/status/1225687489030938625/photo/1

The Amnesty International also voiced its concern over the resolution and urged the government to focus on better protections against child abuse, including through fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.

Human rights organisations have long called on Pakistan to reinstate a moratorium on the death penalty, which was lifted after the Army Public School massacre in Peshawar in 2014 that killed 151 people, most of them students.

"There is no empirical evidence to show that public hangings are a deterrent to crime or in protecting the psycho-social well-being of children", Sarah Belal, executive director of Justice Project Pakistan, a non-profit group campaigning against the death penalty, told AFP.

In March 2016, Pakistan introduced a law criminalising sexual assault against minors, child pornography and trafficking. Previously, only acts of rape and sodomy were punishable by law.

(With input from Agencies)