On the streets: Activists want laws to abolish the death penalty

They believe that once a prisoner hears that he is on death row, it affects his mental health.

KARACHI:

A handful of protesters from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and the Joint Action Committee (JAC) stood outside the Karachi Press Club on Friday, demanding an end to capital punishment.

On the World Day against the Death Penalty being observed in the city, activists said that the government should take steps to bring a law forward to abolish it.

Holding a placard against the death penalty, Abdul Hai of the HRCP strongly believes that the verdict of a death sentence can cause mental illness among the inmates.

"People who are involved in heinous criminal activities are already suffering from a mental illness which results in their crimes," he said. "When they are punished or put on death row, their condition worsens."

The HRCP activist pointed out that in Karachi's prisons, inmates who were on death row were suffering from severe mental illness and were worried about the fact that they could be hanged any day.

Mir Zulfiqar Ali, convener of the JAC, said that a law should be introduced to abolish the death penalty. "Right now there is a moratorium but there should be an official law abolishing it for good," he said. He urged parliamentarians to take notice of this issue.

Ali said that there was gross violation of human rights in Pakistan, and the people were not treated equally.

"The justice system is not fair," he said. "Police investigations are biased. Innocent people are convicted of a crime which they have not committed. No one should be given the death penalty."

Ali claimed that prisoners should be treated in such a manner that when they step out of prison, they don't turn towards crime again.

Columnist and HRCP's Akhtar Balouch believes that killing prisoners is not the way to deal with crime. He added that they should be given counselling instead. "In a civilised and peaceful society, there is no such thing as a death sentence," he said. "These are the countries where the crime rate is very low."

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2014.