LAHORE: The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) on Wednesday commenced a week-long bus tour to highlight through theatre how Pakistan’s death penalty targets poor and vulnerable citizens.

The tour, named ‘Bus Kar Do’ (enough is enough), has been planned ahead of World Day against the Death Penalty on Oct 10 in collaboration with Azad Theatre and Highlight Arts. It will be travelling from Lahore to Sahiwal to Multan, then onto Sukkur and Hyderabad before concluding in Karachi with a final performance.

Before the bus departed for Sahiwal from Lahore Press Club, JPP communications head Rimmel Mohydin said each city had been selected for being home to a central jail where executions took place.

She said once the bus reached each city, they would be stopping in the heart of the local communities and performing Intezaar - The Wait -- an interactive street theatre piece looking at the lives of prisoners on death row. She said all the stories were based on real-life cases of condemned prisoners in Pakistan.

As per data collected by the JPP, Pakistan executed 477 prisoners since it lifted the moratorium on death penalty in December 2014. That averages out to nearly four prisoners a week. The JPP claimed that the data on executions showed that the death penalty in Pakistan had failed to meet its goals, and so its use must be halted.

Ms Mohydin said the bus tour was in line with this year’s global theme of ‘Poverty and Injustice’ that World Day against the Death Penalty would follow.

Artists involved in the performance said the JPP sought to educate Pakistanis about the plight of the most vulnerable prisoners on death row, their journey through the criminal justice system and how many were denied proper legal representation and basic right of fair trial. They said the audience would have a chance to speak with former prisoners and there would be activities for children too during the bus tour.

On reaching Sahiwal on Wednesday evening, the play was staged at Sahiwal Church. Children were provided colouring pages, and nearly 50 people wrote postcards to President Mamnoon Hussain asking for clemency for Abdul Basit – a paralysed prisoner who had been on death row for 10 years.

In a statement, JPP Executive Director Sarah Belal said that with the bus tour they were looking to create a space to tell the stories of the most vulnerable Pakistanis and through that bring awareness about how the death penalty was imposed and carried out in the country.

She said: “Unless we mobilise public support for reform in criminal justice system, many are going to continue to slip through the cracks.”

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2017