Crime rate has decreased drastically across Punjab after the federal government lifted the moratorium on capital punishments after seven years following the Peshawar carnage in December when the Taliban gunned down 151 people of which 132 were school children, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Muhammad Baqar Raza claimed while speaking to Pakistan Today on Friday.
Sharing the official statistics with the scribe, he said that 1,319 cases of murders (including 167 blind murders) were registered in the first three months of 2014 while during the same period in 2015 after the lift of moratorium on capital punishment, a decrease of 22 percent was seen as 1028 cases of murder (131 blind murders) were reported across the province.
The data revealed that 62 cases of dacoity/robbery which resulted in murder were reported in the first three months of 2014 while during the same period this year 44 cases of dacoity/robbery which resulted in murders were reported which showed a decrease of 29 percent.
“These figures clearly show a significant decrease in the killings reported in the current year as compared to the incidents reported in 2014,” Raza added.
SSP Raza added that before the lift of moratorium the Punjab Police had been reporting 15 to 20 cases of murders everyday which had decreased to eight to ten cases of killings now.
Hamid Ali Khan, National Co-coordinator of Nation Counter Terrorism Authority, shared with the Senate Committee on Interior that 137 people have been hanged so far in the country after the lifting of moratorium. “Till mid-April, the mercy petitions of 81 executed prisoners had been rejected by the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” said Punjab Inspector General of Prisons Farooq Nazir.
As many as 33 condemned criminals including a woman with rejected mercy appeals by the president are languishing in Punjab jails.
Whereas, the mercy appeals of 5,431 condemned prisoners including 46 women are yet to be heard and approximately, 45 percent of prisoners in Punjab jails are under-trial prisoners.
According to figures available with Pakistan Today, number of convicted and condemned detainees is 19,781, whereas 194 are in the lock-up over the charges of death by negligence and 2,140 have been booked on murder attempt.
According to Interior Ministry, the number of sentenced prisoners is not less than 8,000 including those who have moved appeal before the relevant courts. Over 8,500 death row prisoners were languishing in jails across Pakistan till March 2014. Pakistan is among the countries that have the highest number of accused held on murder charge.
Former inspector general of police argued that keeping in mind the criminal justice system of the country which is slow and full of complications, capital punishment is the only way to deal with scourge of increasing crimes and terrorism.
“The terrorist would have some sort of fear in their minds before committing such heinous crimes that if arrested they will be hanged. Capital punishment acts as a deterrent to the homicides (murders),’’ he added.
SP Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Umer Virk talking to Pakistan Today said that crimes rate has decreased since the lift on moratorium whereas some other police officials were of the opinion that the decrease in crimes rate is because the hardened habitual criminals are hiding somewhere due to ongoing general holdups and search operations being carried out by the Punjab Police and law enforcement agencies.
However, the human rights activist argue that it was not established anywhere in the world that capital punishments act as a deterrent to crime and homicides
Speaking to Pakistan Today, Justice Project Pakistan Director Sarah Belal said, “It would be a first if this was true. Nowhere in the world has it ever been established that the exercising of the death penalty is a clear deterrent to crime. If such figures exist, the government should make them public and share them will all shareholders.”
Belal added that he organisation’s experience of working with the criminal justice system revealed that owing to a wide and vague definition of terrorism, almost all those tried as terrorists in Pakistan are sentenced for crimes that do not fit any widely acknowledged definition of terrorism.
“All the while, real terrorists who commit atrocities like the one in Peshawar remain unaffected. How then can the government claim that these executions have helped curb terrorism?” questioned Belal.
