ISLAMABAD: Pakistan National Assembly’s resolution calling for the public hanging of child sexual abusers, which was adopted on Friday, has divided politicians, while legal experts labeled it “populist rhetoric.”
The country’s lower house of the parliament passed the resolution with a majority vote. It seeks to introduce the public hanging of offenders convicted of sexually abusing and killing children.
“Such proposals are based on populist rhetoric and nothing else,” Reema Omar, legal adviser for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), told Arab News. “Research clearly shows there is no link between public executions and deterrence of violent crime.”
She said that public executions are cruel, inhumane and against human dignity, which would also make them contrary to Pakistan’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.
“It is time that instead of resorting to such barbaric proposals and perpetuating the cycle of violence, out lawmakers focus on strengthening the criminal justice system to ensure perpetrators of crimes are consistently prosecuted and brought to justice in fair trials,” Omar said.
Child sexual abuse has been one of the most pressing issues in Pakistan in recent years. According to a report released by non-governmental organization Sahil, more than 10 children suffered some form of abuse every day in 2018.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan presented the resolution in the house. It was approved by all lawmakers, except the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
The resolution was also criticized by members of the government.
“Strongly condemn this resolution this is just another grave act in line with brutal civilization practices, societies act in a balanced way barbarism is not answer to crimes … this is another expression of extremism,” Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry said in a Twitter post.
The resolution says that to stop “these shameful and brutal killings of children and give a strong deterrent effect, the killers and rapists should not only be given death penalty by hanging, but they should be hanged publicly.”
The death penalty is a divisive subject in Pakistan. A moratorium was imposed in 2008 and no executions took place between 2009 and 2011. One person was executed in 2012 and none in 2013. However, 515 persons have been executed since December 2014, and 4,225 are on the death row, according to Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) data.
“The use of the death penalty has always been a political tool,” Sarah Belal, executive-director JPP, said in a statement.
Belal said that Pakistan’s Supreme Court and Federal Shariat Court have ruled that public executions were in violation of the country’s constitution and international treaties to which it is a signatory.
Ashtar Ausaf, senior lawyer and former attorney general of Pakistan, said there was no empirical evidence that public hanging was a deterrent to the crime. “It is a sensitive matter and our lawmakers should discuss it thoroughly before legislating on it,” he said.
The resolution was also condemned by Amnesty International, which called for more protection of children.
“The authorities must focus their energies on giving children in Pakistan the protection they desperately need through strong safeguarding policies and procedures before abuse happens,” Amnesty International deputy South Asia director Omar Waraich said in a statement, adding that the perpetrators of abuse should be held to account “through fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.”