ISLAMABAD: A large number of civil society activists and residents of the federal capital held a protest against the death penalty in Pakistan at F-6 Markaz on Monday.

The protest was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in connection with the World Day against the Death Penalty.

Speaking at the protest, HRCP representative Nasreen Azhar said the severity of punishment cannot reduce the crime rates though the certainty of punishment can.

“Our law enforcement agencies do not investigate cases due to which poor, innocent people suffer. We have precedent of those people being executed who were not mentally stable, or had not reached the age of criminal liability when the crime was committed.”

Protest held to mark World Day against the Death Penalty

She added that some countries which do not have the death penalty enjoy lower crime rates than those which do.

“We have to improve our police system in order to reduce the crime rate and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) also needs to be improved,” she said.

Rights activist Farzana Bari said Scandinavian countries did not have the death penalty but had the lower crime rates, which, she said, proved the perception of executions leading to decreased crime rates wrong.

“I believe that God gives life and only He has the right to take it back too. It is better to award a sentence of life time imprisonment than to execute them, because putting someone behind bars for life is more painful than killing them,” she said.

“The Pakistani judicial system is very weak. Even a prime minister was executed and the judges later said the decision was not right,” she said.

Another rights activist Tahira Abdullah said there was also the precedent of a person dying after spending 25 years in jail and the courts declaring him innocent after his death.

“A country which does not have justice should not have the death penalty. We demand that Pakistan sign the UN convention against the death penalty. We want to enjoy the facilities of the Generalised Scheme of Priorities Plus but do not want to implement the European Union’s recommendation for a ban on the death penalty,” she said.

Since the start of carrying out the death sentence in December 2014, Pakistan has hanged 425 individuals and by executing 333 convicts in 2015 alone Pakistan joined the ranks of the countries which carry out the most executions.

Pakistani courts continue to award capital punishment with 225 death sentences awarded in 2014 and 411 in 2015 while the number of death sentences awarded till September this year is 301.

Meanwhile, in a joint declaration, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland said the EU reaffirms strong and unequivocal opposition to capital punishment in all circumstances and for all cases. They said the death penalty was incompatible with human dignity and did not have any proven significance as a deterrent. It does, however, allow judicial errors to become irreversible and fatal.

The abolition of the death penalty is a distinctive achievement in Europe and is a prerequisite for membership to the Council of Europe as inscribed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, the statement added.

“The Council of Europe and the European Union welcome the global trend towards the abolition of capital punishment. Today more than two thirds of all countries have abolished the death penalty in either law or practice. However, the Council of Europe and the European Union regret that the number of executions have risen in some of those countries that retain the death penalty and that some countries which had a de facto moratorium carried out executions,” said the statement.

“Both the organisations are particularly alarmed when this involves the execution of minors which is contrary to the international law. Some countries continue to apply the death penalty for drug-related offences, also in violation of the international law,” it said.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2016