Why not hang Surabjit Singh?

Excellent piece by Farhatullah Babar, PPP spokesman and former senator, in The News, March 21, 2008 -
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=102396

He notes that Sarabjit’s family located him in 2000 (ten years after the arrest) and that the convict said that the prosecution had forced him to admit to a wrong identity. "The Supreme Court dismissed his appeal in August 2005. Unfortunately, our record of convictions on the basis of confessions alone is not very remarkable," says Babar, listing several such cases & pointing out that execution on the basis of confession alone (as in Surabjit's case) can turn out to be a national embarrassment and cast shadows on relations between the two countries.

Babar also notes the strangeness of the timing of Surabjit's execution date announcement "after nearly three years of limbo, and just when a democratic government is to enter office. Let it not be said that it was cynically timed to warn the new government against pursuing its vision of peace in the region. It is one thing when issues of peace are decided behind the scenes by those who want to hang every Indian crossing into Pakistan but quite another when public representatives are asked to pay the political wages for it by making it look like their decision."

Let the man go to his family for crying out loud! In the name of whoever you claim to believe in, a good deed towards another human being is not that much to ask for!

#10 Posted by akcheema,

Atheistic bhai, would you say the same for a bomber Jihadi?

Re: # 11; Zee bhai

Under similar circumstances, with lots of doubts and having no faith in our judicial system, the answer is YES.

I actively participated in the campain for the release of both Aussie citizens, Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks from Guantanamo because I had no faith in the "justice" they might receive.

That is not to say that I had any doubts about the reasons behind their presence in Afghanistan.

#12 Posted by akcheema,

atheistic bhai, this guy is convicted of many bombings killing 14 Pakistanis, including one of planting a bomb on a bicycle in Lohari Gate which caused major deaths and injuries. His only defense is a frivolous one i.e. of mistaken identity which has been closely examined and found to be false - by many courts.

Now, if your David Hicks was guilty of killing 14 aussies (since you're no longer Pakistani so I'll attribute your true loylaties and not say Pakistanis) would you still say about him what you said in #10?

Re: # 13 Zee Bhai

since I live and work in Australia, it is only fair to have some sense of loyalty to the place.

I AM a Pakistani, and like I said somewhere recently here, I do intend to live and work there in the near future

Unfortunately, you and I both know about "convictions" in our part of the world; not to say things are always hunkey dory everywhere else....

I dont know how Manjit planted bombs in both Multan and Lahore at the same time!

Killings innocents is not an exclusive terrain of any group, country or individuals. India/Pakistan does this to each other. Pakistan does in its own country & so does India for her citizens. America does this in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Unfortuately only a few perpetrators are caught in this and sent thru this charade of dispensing justice. Mistaken or otherwise Sarabjit fits in to this category of ppl who was caught int his game of India and Pakistan.

As for death penalty, it's the curiousity aspect that grips us asll whereas Indian/Pakistan police kill ppl routinely in encounters, lock-ups and thru collusions (criminals, anti-social elements). May be we dont protest if Sarabjit is killed by police in India by Indian police in lock-up or encounter.

India is not a paragon of HR virtues.

It's the time we put his behind us and exchange prisoners (not necessarily one2one but state2state) and move ahead. Death penalty debases us as human beings.

If killing 14 ppl is the crime that Sarabjit got to go to gallows, how many death penalties shud Musharraf got to undergo?? Unfortunately, it's the BIGGER criminal (Musharraf) who's deciding the fate of the smaller criminal (Sarabjit).

...we put this behind us...

Killing i/0 killings

caught in this i/o caught int his

beena sarwar: i agree there should be no hanging - not just of surabjit singh, but of anyone. Reason: DNA evidence has revealed that even in the US innocent men have been put on death row. As a result, one governor (illinois i think) put an outright ban on further executions, and other stays have also started going slow on executions. in Pakistan there is all the more reason to believe that innocent people have been executed or are on death row.

Re: # 7 and 8. Sir you have put things in real perspective.
All over in developing areas laws are for poor and helpless people and if rhere is discrition then it is used against most poor people and for powerful is used to help them.

It is very ironic Lenin penned theme carrying Marxian ethos of weather of state in his famous treaties "state and revolution". The oppressiveness of state was vivid for americans like jefferson and other hand marxists also. Both considered state as oppressive appratus to supress people at alter of state supremacy. It was so oppressive many saints and sages over history just defied by abandoning and going to places where state has less control and people respected them for defying state.

One of reason English ruled better than natives was their fairness of treatment of law. My grand father use to say they were good people and fair to natives. He use remember a thing which impressed him. When he was working in school one education inspector came to visit and was happy to see things. Then in headmasters office sahib lit cigaratte , head master did not like , but his Chaparasi came told sahib it is prohibited , he profusely appologised and asked for forgivence.
Difference so transparant where state white wash black looted money and places so openly and making special exemptions for Mr and MRs Z and B. Now it has desensetised all rules or naturual justuice system.
They say Indian foreign service was considered better home civil service in england. As they had great responsibilites and do work and development. It is said top people use to prefer india service , then home civil and last africa etc. So india use to get best and brightest officers and intelligence has age and propensity towards fairness ?

Most standards british officers dealing with natives were far better than this present native govts. ( politics is other matter at higher level and they were suppress and exploit).

I t can be remembered british parliment started enquary and british viceroy killed himself.

Two systems one for poor and one for people who make laws abd bend them like rubber.

Good night

Beena,

Very well said. It is high time we abolish the death penalty. Let us, for the time being at least, not confuse it with prisoner exchange etc. The death penalty is barbaric, period. Several studies have shown that it does not help in deterring crime. Sarabjit Singh has been found guilty by Pakistani courts. He should be put behind bars for life. But he should not hang. The same holds true for Afzal Guru in India.

Pavo has rightly pointed out that it is almost always that the poor guy hangs. I would like to add that "hangings" sprout from a barbaric political base (or "demand" if you may), from the US to Afghanistan. It is unlikely that uncivilized countries like India and Pakistan will abolish the death penalty in the near future. But, there is hope for the future. And it is because of people like you.

#20 Posted by GT,

Sarabjit Singh has been found guilty by Pakistani courts. He should be put behind bars for life. But he should not hang. The same holds true for Afzal Guru in India.

How's Sarabjit Singh comparable with Afzal Guru in India? One is ready to hang, while the other is begging for life.

There's no exchange here ... GT Bhai. No comparison.

I would say, hang Afzal Guru, and let this bharati sob live. Give him life imprisonment courtesy of Pakistani exchequer for his daily daal/roti for the rest of his days. Guru obviously doesn't look forward to that.

Besides, it will make the NGO types happy.

#21 Posted by zeemax:

I am against the death penalty. Whether, or not, Mr. Guru wants to hang or be hanged is besides the point.

singh should be freed because there is no legal system in pakistan.

All of the NAB cases have been dropped because mushy wanted it.

muktaran ami, initially no one was arrested, as in other rape cases in pakistan, now four sre sentenced to death because mushy wanted it.

benzir crime scene is washed clean while the generals crime scene is preserved.

there is no legal systen in pakistan. sighs case could be no better than the NAB cases. It coul;d be like the muktaran mai, mushy or some earlier general wanted it.

Pk legal system is a sham.

Jinnah said every Pakistani was “First, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges and obligations.” He reminded them that even among Muslims there were “Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on”, and among the Hindus there were “Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris … and so on”. These distinctions had to vanish in the political sphere if progress was going to be achieved.
//////////////////
At last pakistan is on teh path top progress per jinnah dictum.

In 1947 there were 23 precent non-mulsims. Now it is less than 2 percent. Ahmadias have been chased out or killed off. Shia doctors and other prominanr shias have vanished. Per the jinnah dictum, pakistan is an alomost homogeneous state ready for progress