After ten years without hangings, death penalty will be no
longer be acceptable to the people of Pakistan.
Nawaz government has extended the
ban on death penalty for an indefinite period (Dawn, 4 Oct 2013, http://dawn.com/news/1047379/plan-to-restore-death-penalty-shelved ). If there are
no hangings for ten years, then it is highly unlikely that they will ever be
restarted. This is a remarkable case of positive feedback. The ban was
initially started by Zardari as a personal decision based on his idea of human
rights. PML-N tried to restart hangings but found that the public was not very
interested in it, but Taliban were strongly opposed to it. There was also some
pressure from European Union since death penalty has been banned in Europe.
Hopefully, after ten years,
ordinary Pakistanis will consider hanging to be as cruel as whipping, stoning
and amputations. Putting someone in prison for life imprisonment is severe
enough. After twenty years in jail, the person will be too old and outdated to
commit serious crime. And if few of them again do something serious, then we
can send them to jail again, hopefully till the end of their lives.
People will also realize that death
penalty is not necessary to establish safety and security. What is actually
needed to protect the general public is good police work and fair judiciary.
Things like finger printing, security cameras, ID card checking, control of
mobile SIM sale, reducing cash and promoting debit cards make it very difficult
to hide a criminal person or his black money. Of course if we can help in
ending the wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir instead of promoting them, and
convert Tribal Areas into settled areas, then we will see a huge fall in
weapons and crimes all over the country.
But for the moment, let us
celebrate a small but important step that Pakistan has taken in moving towards
Humanity. Unnecessary cruelty, even in the name of nation or religion, is still
cruelty.
