Daily Times

In Pakistan at least 6,000 to 8,000 prisoners await execution across the country. Most of those put on the death row are convicted in murder cases. Hundreds among them have exhausted their appeals and their clemency appeals are rejected as well. However, in December 2014, Pakistan lifted the seven-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in response to the deadliest attack on Army Public School in Peshawar. The executions picked up momentum in 2015, with 332 convicts sent to gallows. However, the executions dropped drastically in 2016, and 2017. At least 87 convicts were hanged across the country in 2016, while 44 convicts were executed in 2017.

Pakistan bids to execute a wheelchair-bound convict Abdul Basit, who is disabled and has been languishing in Faisalabad jail for almost 9 years. Abdul Basit was awarded the death sentence in 2009, for killing his girlfriend’s uncle. Within the trial court he was charged under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code PPC. Abdul Basit is perhaps the only death row prisoner in Pakistan who is paraplegic.

After his conviction in 2009, he suffered from tubercular meningitis, which left his lower body paralysed; since then he is wheelchair-bound. A medical board was constituted in order to determine his medical condition; they opined that such disabled people never recovered from the after-effects of tubercular meningitis and remained on bed rest for their whole lives.

However, a ‘black warrant’ was issued on July 28, 2015 by the lower judiciary for his execution. The petitioner’s mother challenged the black warrant in the Lahore High Court through a writ petition- seeking an order for staying his execution on humanitarian grounds that being a paraplegic convict, he did not deserve to be hanged. The petition was placed before the court, but the honourable judge argued that they have to wait for the decision of the jail superintendent or doctor, as they had the jurisdiction to decide the fitness of the prisoner for execution. Later his case was dismissed from High Court and then from Supreme Court, leaving him helpless and without a fair trial.

The story of Abdul Basit gives a clear indication that Pakistan’s criminal justice system is not in good shape, as the wealthy and influential escape through the loopholes; the poor, disabled, mentally ill, and the most vulnerable segments of Pakistan’s society, are rushed to the gallows

As per his wife’s interviews to various newspapers, she shared that throughout the court hearings she was harassed and abused by the opponents, they warned not show up at the next hearing. Each time she visited the prisoner, she saw how his condition was deteriorating. He was in considerable pain, and of course, the conditions of the prison only made matters worse.

While talking to advocate Sarmad Ali, who on humanitarian grounds wrote a mercy petition reference number 11(2)/2017/legal dated 12.09.2017 to the former president Mamnoon Hussain. The president at that time acknowledged the mercy petition and forwarded it to the home ministry to be further processed.

Moreover, Ali said, Basit was convicted because his family didn’t hire a strong defense lawyer. His three executions were called off at the last minute over the past year because Pakistan’s prison rules 1978, do not include provisions for hanging people in wheelchairs. Under Pakistani law, a prisoner sentenced to death should be able to ‘reach the execution point on his own feet’. However, if he is sent to gallows then Pakistan would be breaching the international law and Pakistan’s own law.

Therefore, I want to request the President, the Prime Minister and the judiciary, to have mercy on this fellow. He has already suffered a lot. He is already half dead. What will they get if they execute a paralysed man who is already in prison for life? He deserves mercy. I personally believe that Abdul Basit, who is 43 years old, if he’s executed, then the jail authorities would be in sheer violation of international and Pakistani law. He should be treated and facilitated with the right to a fair trial.

The story of Abdul Basit gives a clear indication that Pakistan’s criminal justice system is not in a good shape, as the wealthy and influential escape through the loopholes; the poor, disabled, mentally ill, and the most vulnerable segments of Pakistan’s society, are rushed to the gallows- celebrated as an indicator of its success in eradicating terrorism.

I further contend that Pakistan’s law has provisions dealing with mercy and/or commuting a death sentence into life imprisonment. It is a case where the court may have enunciated an order placing reliance upon international conventions on human rights and treaties that Pakistan has ratified, while ignoring some cruel provisions of Pakistan’s law. In this manner, judges through their judgements introduce and inject human rights into the violent and cruel society of Pakistan.

The writer is a social and political activist based in Lahore. He has done his Masters and MPhil in Communication Studies. He can be reached at salmanali088@gmail.com, tweets at Salmani_salu

Published in Daily Times, October 6^th 2018.