Following the arrest of the man who raped and killed seven-year-old Zainab, the countrywide shock and anger over the heinous crime has given way to calls for his public hanging - for which there is no provision in the existing law. The first to make that call was Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at press conference where he announced the arrest, punctuated by applause from his minions, making it look more like a triumphal event than a sober professional affair it should have been. The next day, ie, on Wednesday, the idea became the subject of a Senate debate. PPP legislator Rehman Malik proposed an amendment to the PPC to legalise public hanging, saying it would send a strong message and help prevent sexual assault and murder of small girls. Several senators belonging to different parties supported the proposed amendment.
But there were some saner voices, too, such as that of the NP leader Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo and PPP's Farhatullah Babar and Taj Haider who opposed the move. In view of the divided opinion, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani referred the bill to the house committee on law. To say the least, it is sad that the country's highest judicial forum should want public hanging of a person. Those who think it can serve as deterrence should recall that the Zia regime had hanged three men, involved in molesting and killing a minor boy, before a large crowd outside a jail in central Lahore. And yet that did not stop others from committing the same abominable crime. Thousands of children since have been raped and murdered. The present move by some of the legislators may be aimed at being seen to be doing something or to satisfy a general urge for vengeance - an uncivilized emotion - but it can only dehumanize this society already badly brutalized by extremist violence. Even otherwise, death penalty does not help reduce crime. A vast majority of the world's countries has abolished capital punishment. And evidence shows that has not increased crimes.
Public hanging of a child molester and murderer will serve no useful purpose. The answer lies in addressing the causes that lead to such crimes. It is worth noting that Zainab's was the 12th case of its nature in the same locality of Kasur within a space of one year. Yet all these horrors remained unresolved. Neither the police nor their controlling authority, the provincial government, got active until violent protests broke out in the area over Zainab's case, generating countywide outrage. According to the police, now in the process of conducting DNA tests of other victims, the same sexual predator was allegedly involved in seven or eight other cases. Clearly the police need to improve their performance. Considering that more often than not the criminals in such situations are known to the victims and hence trusted by them - in the present case the accused was a neighbour and hence a familiar figure to Zainab - parental advice to children not to trust any outsider can help. But the primary responsibility of creating a safer environment squarely falls on the governmental shoulders.