Currently, there are more than 8,000 prisoners on Pakistan’s death row. In 2008, President Zardari ordered a moratorium on all executions with the only exception being that of a soldier in 2012 who had been convicted of murder. Now that the political dispensation has changed, human rights groups watch with bated breath as to what will now happen to these thousands of prisoners. It is being reported by some quarters that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has met President Zardari and allowed the moratorium to be maintained until further orders. The foreign ministry is also being reported as encouraging the extension of the president’s order. However, it is the EU’s tough stance on the matter that may be behind this decision by Nawaz Sharif. The head of the European parliament sub-committee on human rights has voiced the 28-member bloc’s displeasure at any possibility of the lifting of the moratorium; it even hinted at reconsidering Pakistan’s duty-free access to European markets, known as the generalised scheme of preferences (GSP) plus. To say that the GSP plus has plenty of advantages for the country, especially when it comes to rebuilding the flailing economy is an understatement — and the government knows it.
However, it is the death penalty per se that is the problem in Pakistan. We have a very weak judicial system where, more often than not, the guilty are set free and the innocent are convicted. Those who cannot afford high-priced lawyers have to put up with incompetent defence. Our courts are too open to influence and pressure by mafia groups. When terrorists are charged and brought before the courts, they are usually set free. The prosecution suffers from lack of adequate evidence and judges and witnesses are threatened. This results in the worst kind of criminal — the terrorist — being set free on bail or acquitted and unleashed once again onto society. Who is to say that most of those 8,000 prisoners on death row are not innocent? With such a judicial system, such a thought is not hard to fathom. More than 150 countries the world over have abolished the death penalty and for good reason: state murder is inhumane and has not been proved to deter those who commit crimes. Pakistan needs to, first and foremost, fix the lapses in its judicial system and better implement the law. It should transform the moratorium into the complete abolition of capital punishment. We already have a violent and self-destructive image as it is; let us not add to it. *