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Capital Punishment In Pakistan

By Ali Mohsin

20 February, 2016
Countercurrents.org

On his first visit to Europe in 1857, the great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy witnessed the execution of Francis Richeux, a convicted murderer and thief who was guillotined in Paris before a crowd of 12,000 to 15,000 people. The incident had a profound effect on the remarkably sensitive Tolstoy, deepening his skepticism of state power and contributing to the development of his egalitarian philosophy. In his book, ‘A Confession”, written between 1879 and 1880, Tolstoy discussed the execution and the feelings it had aroused in him at the time:

When I saw the head separate from the body, and how they both thumped into the box at the same moment, I understood, not with my mind but with my whole being, that no theory of the reasonableness of our present progress can justify this deed; and that though everybody from the creation of the world, on whatever theory, had held it to be necessary, I know it to be unnecessary and bad; and therefore the arbiter of what is good and evil is not what people say and do, and is not progress, but is my heart and I.

More than 130 years have passed since Tolstoy penned these words, with the once ubiquitous practice of capital punishment now a relic of the past in much of the world. As of July 2015, out of the 193 countries that are UN member-states, only 37 still retain the use of capital punishment in both law and practice. In 2014, Amnesty International recorded executions in just 22 countries, a significant decline from two decades earlier in 1995, when the human rights group recorded executions in 42 countries. These statistics point to the obvious global trend of countries moving away from the death penalty and upholding the right to life, the most elementary of all human rights.

In Pakistan, however, the state has been carrying out executions at the rate of nearly one per day since the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted following the horrific attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014. As many as 345 people have been put to death since the resumption of executions, according to Reprieve, an international organization that opposes capital punishment. Earlier this month, Gallup Pakistan released the findings of survey it conducted which showed that 92 percent of Pakistanis support the use of the death penalty against terrorists. The results of the survey demonstrate the widespread revulsion generated by the APS attack and the growing frustration of Pakistanis fed up with terrorism. It must be said, however, that lending support to a barbaric practice like capital punishment in exchange for a false sense of security, or out of an unhealthy desire for revenge, is unsound at best.

The argument that the death penalty is necessary due to the unique threat posed by terrorist groups flies in the face of reality. There is little evidence that the executions carried out so far have effectively reduced the threat posed by terrorism. The country has continued to be hit by terrorist attacks since the moratorium was lifted, including the appalling massacre of Ismailis in Safoora last May, and the recent attack on Bacha Khan University. Numerous other plots have been foiled. Moreover, the bizarre ideology of the terrorists is not taken into account by proponents of capital punishment. Last year, Amnesty International reported being told by prison officials that the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had given out sweets to celebrate the ‘martyrdom’ of one its members executed in prison. The terrorists do not fear death the way normal people do, they embrace it. They believe their murderous actions are divinely sanctioned, and that dying for the “cause” earns them a ticket to Paradise. It’s difficult to see how such people would be deterred by the threat of execution.

The most interesting aspect of this issue is that the vast majority of the people executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty weren’t accused of any terrorism-related crimes. A study conducted by various organizations revealed that fewer than 1 in 6 of the people executed between December 2014 and July 2015 were involved in terrorist activity. Reprieve believes that the proportion since then may be even lower. These statistics demonstrate the executions taking place have little to do with countering terrorism. The use of capital punishment should be seen for what it truly is: the ultimate assertion of state power over individuals.

There are many valid arguments against the death penalty, but the strongest is the fact that once the sentence is carried out, it cannot be reversed. History provides many examples of innocent people who were wrongly executed. Two years ago in China, for example, a teenager from Inner Mongolia who had been executed for rape and murder years earlier had his conviction overturned after another man confessed to the crime.

In the United States, 156 death row convicts have been exonerated since 1973, their innocence proven in the nick of time. The American justice system is far from perfect, but it is vastly superior to the corrupt system in Pakistan where unfair trials are the norm and the police routinely use torture to extract confessions. If innocent people can be condemned to die in an advanced country like the US, one can only imagine the situation prevailing in Pakistan. There are approximately 8,000 people on death row in the country. No sensible person could possibly believe that all of them are guilty. The question raised here is, exactly how many of these unfortunate souls would have to be proven innocent in order change public opinion regarding capital punishment?

Truth be told, the execution of even a single innocent person is an indelible stain on the human conscience.

There is very convincing evidence that Pakistan has already executed an innocent man since reinstating the death penalty. Last year, a Christian man named Aftab Bahadur was executed in Kot Lakhpat. Bahadur, who was only 15 when he was convicted, spent 22 years on death row for a murder that many human rights activists and journalists believe he didn’t commit. According to Bahadur, the police had offered to release him in return for a Rs50,000 bribe, but as a plumber’s apprentice, Bahadur couldn’t afford to pay the sum. Just days before his execution, the main witness whose testimony sent Bahadur to death row recanted, stating that the police had forced him to say that he saw Bahadur committing the murder. The authorities couldn’t care less, and Bahadur was executed on June 10, 2015. He wept as he was led to the gallows and went to his grave claiming his innocence.

Those of us from privileged backgrounds can easily dismiss the death of Bahadur as a one-off incident without a second thought. After all, the death penalty isn’t meant for those at the top. However, the poor people of the country can’t afford to be nonchalant, because what happened to Bahadur can happen to any one of them as well.

Unfortunately, capital punishment will continue to be viewed as a solution to terrorism and bloodshed in the foreseeable future. In reality, the death penalty is a reflection of an already brutalized and violent society. Terrorism and crime do not exist in a vacuum. They are directly related to the poverty, deprivation and backwardness that plague the country, problems that successive governments have shown little interest in addressing.

The writer holds a Master's degree in Political Science from Long Island University. He is a freelance columnist and activist based in New York and can be reached at [email protected]



 



 

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