Saved from death

Published July 31, 2016

DIPLOMACY notched up a partial victory this week as Zulfiqar Ali, a Pakistani citizen sentenced to death by firing squad in Indonesia, was included among the 10 individuals whose executions have been suspended by Indonesia. A trial that was marred by evidentiary and due process flaws, according to human rights activists, should never have been the basis for his long-term incarceration, let alone grounds for his execution. This paper opposes the death penalty in all its forms and, given the grim record of executions here in Pakistan over the past 18 months, it is an altogether welcome development that Ali’s case appears to have sparked a national conversation on the potential unfairness of judicial systems. Indeed, that conversation should be extended to the problem of draconian punishments against alleged drug offenders inside Pakistan and abroad. Saudi Arabia, for example, has a terrible and insistent policy on alleged drug smugglers that has seen several Pakistani citizens executed over the years. The full-throated and wholehearted defence of Ali — morally correct and laudable — should be extended to all Pakistani citizens facing the tyranny of flawed justice in all countries.

Indeed, one of the travesties of the Pakistan criminal system is the range of crimes for which the death penalty can be handed down. While the long fight to have capital punishment abolished in all its forms here continues, attention over the medium term also needs to be paid to the scope of the penalty. Kidnapping and drug trafficking are just two of the crimes that can result in a death sentence even if no one was killed while the crime was being committed. Can it really be said that the death penalty deters drug smuggling or drug-related crimes in Pakistan? Is the criminal justice system really punishing major drug offenders, or are those caught and punished by the state individuals at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder and without access to adequate legal representation? Ali has rightly become a cause célèbre, but there are many Zulfikar Alis languishing in Pakistani prisons and on death row. At the very least, there ought to be a review of the scope of the applicability of the death penalty here.

There is also the issue of due process: the right to a fair trial and reasonable standards of justice applied right from the investigation phase all the way through to appeals and clemency requests. The 21st Amendment has virtually obliterated due process for terrorism suspects tried in military courts and the appeals process in the Supreme Court thus far has brought to light disturbing testimony of victims’ families and their lawyers. Fundamental rights are non-negotiable as ought to be due process, especially when the death sentence is a possibility. Zulfiqar Ali must be saved and so should many other Pakistanis in prisons abroad and at home.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2016

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