Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has called for the abolition of capital punishment on the eve of World Day Against the Death Penalty, citing the need for a broader public debate on the effectiveness of the death penalty in deterring crimes.

In a statement issued by the party’s media cell, senior leader and former senator Farhatullah Babar contended that the accused must be given right to proper defence and should be protected against torture for extracting confessions.

Expressing concern over the execution of mentally challenged and juvenile offenders, Babar urged authorities to exempt such individuals from facing the death penalty.

Babar claimed that there are currently 33 crimes that carry the death penalty in Pakistan. He called for a revision of this list to reduce its scope, reserving capital punishment for cases where no other remedy exists against the commission of a crime.

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The PPP leader also advocated access to legal and consular services for overseas Pakistanis, especially workers, facing death row. He also asked authorities to devise a mechanism where the convicts languishing in foreign jails could seek mercy as per the law of the host country. He said that the state should facilitate them in streamlining mercy petitions.

Babar argued that studies indicated Pakistan disproportionately executed the poorest and most marginalised individuals due to violations of their fair trial rights and the use of torture to extract confessions.

Lamenting on the delayed justice system, he recalled a case where two brothers accused of murder were acquitted by the Supreme Court only after they were hanged.

He also lambasted the senate standing committee for recently passing a private member bill endorsing public hangings, demanding that proposed amendments to be withdrawn.

The former Senator was talking in reference to a Senate Standing Committee on Interior which ratified bill proposing public hanging for rapists, last month.

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In the context of public outcry for hanging terrorists in the aftermath of APS tragedy, 2014, Farhatullah said that 85 per cent of executions carried out thereafter were for ordinary crimes and not related to terrorism.

He shared that various Islamic countries had placed moratorium on executions of death sentence, regretting that in Pakistan, the number of crimes carrying the death penalty, had progressively increased.

He maintained that while the apex court considered death a typical punishment for serious crimes, there were also court judgments calling for “justice with mercy” and the necessity to record reasons for issuing a death sentence.

He said that the Qur’an stressed mercy and forgiveness. The Quranic injunction ‘in just retribution there is life for you’ (2:179) was a subtle suggestion that ‘ qisas‘ (retribution) was not revenge but protection of life. The Qur’an emphasised life, not revenge, he argued.

In conclusion, he emphasised that a significant number of convictions were overturned on appeal, demonstrating that the death penalty often resulted in serious miscarriages of justice.