Wisdom of a psychopath

Zahir Jaffer has been found guilty of murder. He has been sentenced to death by the Islamabad sessions court. Soon enough, he will be taken to the gallows and hung till death. Hung, till the neck breaks. Sounds grotesque, the way it was intended to be. But, take a second and think. Are we hanging him as a deterrence, punishment, vengeance, or a combination of all three? Once he dies, that will be the end of Zahir Jaffer, we won’t ever get to know what made him commit such a heinous act. Unless, someone does it again.

In my piece titled ‘Fear of the dark’ published here on the 13^th Feb 2022, I vehemently stated that we need to learn from Zahir Jaffer and his actions. Although I received significant backlash for my views, I think it is imperative to provoke people so that they think.

I’ll say it again. Zahir Jaffer should not be killed. He needs to be sat down and spoken with. We need to learn from our criminals and we need to learn from those who find it easy to take a human life. In Zahir’s case, it has now been proven that he forcefully kept the victim inside the house and later murdered her by way of decapitation. Not something an ordinary person can even think of, let alone carry out. Same goes for Javed Iqbal though. He killed more than 100 children and burned their bodies in vats of acid. Unfortunately, Javed Iqbal was sentenced to death the same way he killed all his victims. Although later he was found dead in his prison cell but you get the idea. The idea is to profile criminals. To learn from them.

Once Zahir Jaffer is killed, we will have achieved absolutely nothing. At least nothing that could help us prevent similar catastrophes in the future. We need ardent minds to help us learn from these killers and murderers. All his antics, ranging from acting deranged to coming to the court room on a stretcher, one thing is evident, he definitely has tricks up his sleeves, which make him an interesting subject.

I will reiterate that I do not condone Zahir’s actions neither do I sympathise with him. But, imagine if we just let him speak. Without fences and barriers. Not about the murder but about his life. Is he a high functioning psychopath who was giving therapy to patients while requiring therapy himself? Did he galvanise his patients towards improvement? One thing is clear, Zahir Jaffer was not scrupulous with his actions; had he been, he would have evaded capture for longer and might have carried out more similar acts.

We need to have a conversation with Zahir Jaffer. The convict definitely has more to offer than his extravagant and amusing theatrics coupled with his occasional outbreaks. And more so, doesn’t it tingle a bone to know what things we might get to learn about Zahir Jaffer’s childhood and upbringing from the man himself? What if he has secrets to tell about his family and what made him into who he is? I am sure he has much more to talk about and once given the opportunity and time, who knows, he might start being coherent and logical.

But it is safe to say that our criminal justice system needs to profile criminals. Look into their family backgrounds, question them about their childhood. All these factors are pivotal towards understanding how the criminal minds work. Because as I stated above, it will be extremely easy to hang Zahir till his death and that will be it. Death will be avenged and the public will be relieved. Only for another Zahir Jaffer to kill another Noor Mukadam. We need to learn from these men and the perfect subject of study is within our grasp.

Please, sit down and talk to Zahir Jaffer. Let him blabber and rap about his life. There might be a pattern to this insanity. Let your mind dictate you instead of your heart.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2022.

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