Editorial: DAWN - 30 June 2013

Humanity required: Stay on executions

THIS is a country with serious law and order problems in several areas.

While many remedies can be explored, the least acceptable is that implied in a complaint made by the Sindh High Court Bar Association in a petition against the targeted killings of lawyers and others in Karachi: that capital punishment is not being meted out to prisoners on death row, which, in the petitioner`s view, sends out the message that those responsible for heinous crimes go unpunished.

This newspaper opposes capital punishment, not just for being a cruel and degrading punishment but also because it is only in a few cases that guilt is proved beyond a shadow of doubt. Most countries have removed this punishment from the law books.

The strong pro-death penalty lobby in Pakistan, though, has meant that we have not done so, even though the country is amongst the states with the highest number of prisoners on death row. A middle ground of sorts was found in recent years when the earlier PPP government took charge: a de facto moratorium over executions being carried out has been in place since 2008, the only exception being the hanging in November in Mianwali Jail of a soldier sentenced to death for having killed a superior officer.

As an interior ministry official informed the SindhHigh Court on Friday, the presidential stay on executions expires today. He added that the current government is also reviewing the moratorium policy.

This should take the direction suggested late last year by the presidential spokesperson, who said that the government was planning to introduce a bill in parliament converting the death penalty into life imprisonment. It is to be regretted that this bill never emerged. The current government should take up the matter.

Furthermore, the state would be better advised to turn its attention to the glaring flaws in a justice system where those who commit crime get away with it more often than not, and where the rates of successful prosecution are abysmal even in cases where suspects have been arrested. The problems are well known: to name just a few, the limited capabilities of investigators, the lack of forensic expertise, the inefficiencies in piecing evidence together to build a solid case. Meanwhile, there are factors that compound crime, such as petty or juvenile offenders being incarcerated with hardened criminals, and our jails being merely places to keep prisoners rather than functioning as correctional facilities. The moratorium on executions should be extended and the country should work towards abolishing the death penalty altogether.

Ignored and condoned: Torture in custody

IN recent days, rights activists have increased pressure for effective rules against torture in custody. These efforts counter the frequent incidence of suspects being tortured by policemen who are keen to extract a confession, for money or to satisfy their own flawed sense of justice. Only a few days ago, an accused was allegedly beaten to death in Sharagpur (Sheikhupura), his bones broken in many places.

The reaction of the police, as reported in a section of the media, aptly summed up the official apathy to a dire problem: `So many die [in Pakistan] every day.` As routine matters go, many people are tortured in custody daily, an activist told a seminar in Lahore recently: one for each of the 13,000 police stations in the country.

Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture, the supposed extracoverforthe accused along with the guarantees offered in the Constitution. In Punjab, the Police Order 2002 is in place, under which a policemanconvicted of inflicting `torture or violence to any person in his custody` can be jailed for five years. Even the recent signing of the UN convention by Pakistan and the improvement in local laws have had minimal impact. At the most, whenever a scandal manages to break out from within the dreaded walls of a thana, an official or two is suspended. A report unveiled in Lahore last week had 57pc of the accused saying they were tortured in custody. More than half of the accused covered by the study said their families had paid the police not to torture them.

With each case, fear and insecurity increase manifold, and calls for the implementation of effective laws become louder.

Yet the shameful acts continue to be institutionally ignored; in fact they are silently condoned in the name of quick justice. For all those sick with violence, especially the brand perpetuated in the name of the state, these harrowing stories emanating from the lockups are more than just distressing.

Remarkable fortitude: Trekkers` visit to Pakistan

BLOOD must still stain the rocks at the Nanga Parbat base camp where gunmen shot dead 10 foreign trekkers and their guide last Sunday. For those who know this area, it would have been unimaginable that such an assault could take place at all. Most climbers approach the mountain from another, relatively more hospitable side; this route the base camp is a good 10 to 12 hours` slog from where the jeep track peters out is taken only by those with the steeliest of resolve.

With the nearest settlements also hours away, one can only wonder at the intensity of the gunmen`s ruthless determination to kill the mountaineers.

It is through the same lens of steely resolve, though of a different kind, that non-climbers can understand the commitment of the more than two dozen foreign mountaineers who arrived in Islamabad just a few days later.

Even while acknowledgingthat the men and women who set out to conquer mountains know that death is their constant companion, their fortitude given the recent slaughter is remarkable. Pakistan`s Karakorum destinations were once very popular with climbers from across the world, but their numbers have plummeted in recent years and with it, the local economies. The trekkers who arrived on Thursday are a much-needed reminder that what was once a stream of visitors is now a trickle, but worth saving nevertheless before it dries up altogether. The importance of apprehending those that carried out the base camp massacre then cannot be overstated.

Law enforcers have said that leads are being pursued and the area searched. They should take this as a test case: unless the crime is solved, we risk more of the same and lose any chance of being able to resuscitate the tourist industry in the area.