Daily Times

Due to a timely intervention by President Mamnoon Hussain, a disabled murder convict was given a fourth stay of execution for two months just hours before he was due to be hanged. Abdul Basit, 43, a convict paralysed from the waist down, was scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday morning, November 25 when a presidential decree halted the execution. He was convicted of murder in 2009 and contracted tubercular meningitis in prison in 2010. Earlier, his execution was harrowingly postponed thrice on medical grounds and concerns about how a wheelchair-bound man would mount the scaffold. Authorities acknowledge that as Abdul Basit was unable to stand on the gallows, it was impossible to carry out the execution according to prison rules. This particular case brings to the forefront a sorry state of affairs of the justice system in Pakistan where even the disabled cannot escape the merciless procedure of hanging after conviction. Although the execution has been stayed again, what about the agony he and his family have been passing through? This is an additional punishment for a disabled convict who has become a victim of the faulty justice system in the country. It has also raised questions about the standard of human rights and the concerned authorities’ ability to fulfil moral obligations. In fact, a flawed justice system, unfair trials and notoriety of the police for fabricating cases through torture have made the whole judicial procedure a murky phenomenon. It is a result of this failed system that cruel and unusual punishment is being meted out to a convict irrespective of his physical disability.
Another terrible aspect is that the government has virtually been on an execution spree since the lifting of a moratorium on the death penalty. Convicts are being executed on an almost daily basis. According to Amnesty International, Pakistan has executed 299 people since the death penalty was controversially reinstated following a Taliban mass killing at a school in Peshawar last December. The Amnesty figures suggest Pakistan is on track to become one of the world’s top executioners in 2015. Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but in March 2015, they were extended to all capital offences. At a time when the death penalty is being abolished in most countries, Pakistan is using this centuries old punishment as deterrence against crimes. In reality, the death penalty has failed to prove a deterrent against crime and terrorism. The time has come for the government to reform the judicial system. Instead of relying on cruel punishment, there is a need to introduce a reform culture in society where criminals could be treated as human beings. Remember, no society can succeed without equity, justice and fair play. *