AGL 39.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.50 (-1.25%)
AIRLINK 129.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.01%)
BOP 6.76 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.15%)
CNERGY 4.68 Increased By ▲ 0.19 (4.23%)
DCL 8.54 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.12%)
DFML 41.24 Increased By ▲ 0.42 (1.03%)
DGKC 81.40 Increased By ▲ 0.44 (0.54%)
FCCL 32.91 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.43%)
FFBL 74.97 Increased By ▲ 0.54 (0.73%)
FFL 11.85 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.94%)
HUBC 110.10 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (0.47%)
HUMNL 14.34 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (4.29%)
KEL 5.27 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.75%)
KOSM 7.66 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.78%)
MLCF 38.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.26%)
NBP 65.13 Increased By ▲ 1.62 (2.55%)
OGDC 193.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.79 (-0.41%)
PAEL 25.85 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.54%)
PIBTL 7.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.14%)
PPL 153.15 Decreased By ▼ -2.30 (-1.48%)
PRL 25.55 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-0.93%)
PTC 17.60 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.57%)
SEARL 79.59 Increased By ▲ 0.94 (1.2%)
TELE 7.81 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.64%)
TOMCL 33.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.09%)
TPLP 8.54 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (1.67%)
TREET 16.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.68%)
TRG 57.88 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-0.58%)
UNITY 27.68 Increased By ▲ 0.19 (0.69%)
WTL 1.39 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 10,531 Increased By 86.2 (0.83%)
BR30 31,106 Decreased By -83 (-0.27%)
KSE100 98,971 Increased By 1173.2 (1.2%)
KSE30 30,916 Increased By 435.1 (1.43%)

ISLAMABAD: On the eve of “World Day Against Death Penalty” today the PPP has called for abolishing the death penalty, said a press release.

“Until the death penalty is abolished as a result of a larger public debate on the efficacy of death penalty in deterring crime the victims be given right to proper defence and protected against torture for extracting confession”, said a statement issued on Tuesday by the President of the Human Rights Cell of the PPP former Senator Farhatullah Babar.

The number of crimes carrying the death penalty must be drastically decreased from the present 33 and juveniles and mentally-challenged persons be spared from execution. Legal and consular services to migrant Pakistani workers be ensured and the procedure for mercy petitions against executions streamlined, he said.

He said that studies showed that Pakistan executed only the poorest and the most marginalized whose fair trial rights were often violated and convicts were tortured in the broken criminal justice system. Highlighting it, he said that sometime back two brothers accused of murder were acquitted by the Supreme Court after years on death row but only after they had been hanged.

It is shameful that in such a broken criminal justice system the senate committee recently passed a private member bill calling for public hangings, he said and called for immediate withdrawal of the proposed amendment. He said that after the APS massacre in December 2014, there was a public outcry to hang the terrorists. However, over 85 per cent of the executions carried out thereafter were for ordinary crimes and not related to terrorism, he said.

He said that states abolishing the death penalty have increased and more and more Muslim countries had placed moratorium on executions but in Pakistan, the number of crimes carrying the death penalty had progressively increased. He said that as murder was punishable with death or life imprisonment a measure of arbitrariness in giving death penalty was unavoidable. The Supreme Court has held that death is a usual punishment, but there are also court judgments calling for “justice with mercy” and that reasons must be recorded why a judge, he said.

He said that the Quran stressed mercy and forgiveness. The Quranic injunction “in just retribution there is life for you” (2:179) was a subtle suggestion that 'qisas' (retribution) was not revenge but protection of life. The Quran emphasized life, not revenge, he said.

Death penalty is irreversible, has doubtful deterrence value and militates against the poor.

The fact that a large number of convictions are set aside on appeal showed that the death penalty resulted in appalling miscarriage of justice, he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023

Comments

Comments are closed.