More than 4,000 prisoners involved in murder cases are languishing in various jails even after completing their sentence merely because they can not pay 'Diyat' (compensation amount) to the heirs of deceased.
A complex legal mechanism based on Islamic injunctions allows only those heirs of deceased who have attained the age of puberty to write off the payment of Diyat.
Both the state and courts are bound to go along with the consent of heirs who can decide the fate of the murderer either way in such cases. The issue was the topic of the discussion at the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights here on Wednesday.
Presided over by Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Senator Khalid Ranjha, the panel met to review a private bill that called for bringing necessary changes in relevant laws to help secure an early release of such prisoners.
Moved in the Upper House by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Senator Kamran Murtaza, "The Pakistan Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2004", had suggested to empower courts either to defer the payment of Diyat or put it on instalments.
"I (in my bill) have suggested that courts may be empowered to release at least those prisoners who have completed their original sentence and one-fourth more in jails due to non-payment of Diyat," Kamran told Business Recorder after the meeting.
Kamran Murtaza, a lawyer himself by profession, said he had not proposed discriminatory powers for courts to write off Diyat even for those murderers who have spent more time than their actual sentence. "This would have been and un-Islamic and illogical demand, had he proposed it. Because none else but only the heirs of deceased have the right to do so," Murtaza, a lawmaker from the six-party religious alliance, told this scribe.
In what appeared to be an attempt to have a 'mid way', Murtaza had suggested that those prisoners who had spent in jail one-fourth more of their actual sentence should be released on bail so that they could earn and pay the Diyat.
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