‘If govt doesn’t execute court orders, crime will stay’

Court notes if the death penalty law was not required in society, why had parliament not legislated to end it?

KARACHI: The failure of government functionaries to execute court orders is the prime reason for the increase in crimes in Karachi, observed the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

“If the government does legislation to protect criminals, how can courts be blamed for their release,” it said. “All of this is being done in a systematic way.” Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said courts had handed down the death sentence to hundreds whose mercy applications had also been turned down. “No execution has taken place during the last four years,” he said, adding that if the death penalty law was not required in society, why had parliament not legislated to end it? Another judge pointed out that the convicts were paying money each month to delay their mercy applications. The court asked why the government had not prepared a law to declare possession of illegal arms a non-bailable offence to control crime.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2012.