Three sets of people must be jubilant following Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government’s decision to continue with the moratorium on the death penalty. First and foremost; all the death-row prisoners convicted for religiously and politically motivated killings, mass murders, terrorism, cold-blooded assassinations and raping and slaughtering innocent children or women. They must be singing praises for Sharif and his team for sparing their lives in one big, bold act of compassion and generosity.

The second set delighted on this development comprises all the alleged criminals and terrorists, who are currently defending cases in the lower and superior courts in any of those 27 heinous crimes for which death sentence is given under the constitution of this Islamic Republic. They can relax and breathe easy now. No harm will come to them even if they stand guilty of these offences. Let’s also include in this second set all the would-be killers, terrorists, child rapists and kidnappers. Now they can commit all their black deeds without fear of any noose around their necks.

Last but not the least in the lot of happy ones remains those ‘politically correct’, high-flying individuals who work for the European Union-funded rights and non-government organisations. They have been campaigning for the scrapping of the death penalty for long at the behest of their donors. Without taking into account Pakistan’s objective conditions or the level of its social, political and economic development – or lack of it – they have been demanding the abolishment of capital punishment by giving examples of those western or westernised nations which abandoned executions in the natural course of their historical progress and evolution.

While these three sets of people have a solid reason to wave victory signs, there is one vast group of those unfortunate Pakistanis who have another reason to feel more pessimistic, vulnerable and threatened by the way successive rulers are trying to appease condemned convicts, their foreign-funded supporters and the EU leading the anti-death campaign. The victims, their families and all the ordinary, law-abiding Pakistanis should know that justice is one thing they won’t get whether it is the rule of the PPP or the PML-N.

Yes, we know that the original sin of placing a moratorium on the death sentence was committed by the PPP when it came to power in early 2008. The PPP made no serious attempt to constitutionally ban the death sentence because of the fear of popular backlash. It settled for a presidential moratorium, thus introducing a contradiction, a dichotomy in Pakistan’s legal system. The courts continued handing down death sentences, but the executive kept sitting on them. As a result, we now have around 8,000 death-row convicts in Pakistani prisons. Only one person was hanged to death during this period – and that too on the Pakistan Army’s intervention.

However, the former PPP government at least had the veneer of an ideological position on the issue – no matter how flimsy or controversial one may call it. Being a liberal party, which witnessed its founding leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto hanged to death under a controversial judgement, it opposed executions as a matter of policy.

But what about the centre right and pro-Shariah Sharif’s Muslim League, which had been opposing the ban on the death penalty all through the PPP’s previous five-year rule. When in opposition, the PML-N announced several times to end this moratorium once in power. But the tiger literally transformed into a pussycat after receiving just one public threat from an extremist group, which has its key members on the death row.

The group warned the PML-N government to get ready to face its wrath even if one of its members were to be executed in line with the court orders. The Sharif government immediately obliged by extending the ban till its own man entered the President House. Now we hear that the moratorium on the death sentence has been extended as the government remains mindful of its international obligations and commitments.

Should one laugh or cry? That depends on which side of the fence you are; among the first three sets celebrating the government’s retreat or the vast group of those helpless Pakistanis who remain at the receiving end – both from the criminals and terrorists as well as the government.

In meeting its so-called ‘international obligations’, the Sharif government completely ignored the repeated advice given by the superior judiciary that the hanging of convicts must resume to establish rule of law in the country.

Should we now expect the Sharif government to be bold enough and move a constitutional amendment in parliament to abolish the death sentence? This should be the logical next step, as demanded by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) while welcoming the government’s decision of maintaining the moratorium on hanging.

But Sharif can’t dare to take this path because of the fear of the powerful religious lobbies and the uproar such a move will create among the general masses, which overwhelmingly demand dispensation of justice to the people involved in heinous offences. Therefore, the Sharif government seems all set to follow the PPP’s path by continuing with the contradiction in Pakistani law and practice.

This myopic policy would benefit criminals, terrorists and the so-called rights campaigners, but prove disastrous for the society. It will only embolden and encourage killers and could force many people to take the law into their own hands. It means that there will be more cases of vigilante and street justice and more and more people would turn to non-state actors for protection and quick settlement of disputes. This has already been happening not just in the tribal areas, but even in major cities like Karachi where the Taliban-like jirga and justice system is fast becoming a vogue in various neighbourhoods.

This is also an indication of the crumbling writ of the state and the weakness of the state and its institutions, which now always yield when faced with any external or internal pressure.

The opening spell of the Sharif government has indeed been disappointing – especially on those vital issues that are likely to make or break this country. Top among these is the challenge of lawlessness, terrorism and crime. In a country, where more than 50,000 people have been killed by al Qaeda and its inspired local militants and in wave after wave of sectarian and religiously-motivated violence, it is shameful that the rulers on one hand are desperate for talks with lawbreakers, terrorists and insurgents and on the other trying to appease them by undermining the law by failing to punish the guilty and the convicted.

The Sharif government seems confused, overwhelmed by the challenges at hand and is on the retreat. It is wavering under pressure at the very start of its innings on tackling the core issues including that of terrorism, lawlessness and crime which pose an existentialist threat to Pakistan’s unity and sovereignty. It is wasting time in trying to hold dialogues with militants, who are setting pre-conditions, dictating terms of engagement and almost daily giving a bloody nose to the security forces and killing ordinary Pakistanis in a string of terrorist attacks.

Yet, the government’s mantra is talks. The continuing of the moratorium on the death penalty is another step to appease these very terrorists and criminals. The price will be borne only by the ordinary Pakistanis, who don’t have any armoured personnel carriers, bullet-proof vehicles and high walls at their disposal to protect them.

Our rulers have failed us in the past. They are failing us again. Pakistanis, we must pity ourselves, for those in power continue to trample the law, the constitution and justice under their feet by favouring the convicted and the condemned. And in doing this, they are dishonouring and disgracing all the victims, their families and ordinary Pakistanis. And all this is being done after just one threat from militants… in the name of human rights, or the pressure of the European Union. This is the worst insult traumatised Pakistanis can suffer from our elected government. We should all cry in unison – shame on thee.

The writer is editor The News, Karachi.

Email: amir.zia@thenews.com.pk

http://e.thenews.com.pk/10-7-2013/page7.asp