Expediency has long been the name of the game in Pakistan. Short-term personal goals are accomplished while putting the interest of communities, or even the entire nation, at risk. This is, after all, a country that constitutionally denies millions of its citizens the right to openly practise their beliefs, a country that introduced regressive anti-women laws and claimed that they had holy sanction, and a country that once funded bloodthirsty terrorists.
The increasing likelihood of public hangings being sanctioned for paedophiles is due to similar political expediency. The people want it, so they will get it. The problem is, the people don’t always realise the implications of what they want, or that the ones making the offer are often selling snake oil. Knee-jerk moves are easier to make than well thought-out decisions. In countries with higher literacy rates, the implications of agreeing to irrational or self-defeating public demands are rooted in fear. In Pakistan, caving into such demands can be catastrophic.
The death penalty itself is largely ineffective in curbing crime. Saudi Arabia still has drugs, America still has murder and Pakistan still has rape. But let us set aside any debate on the efficacy of the death penalty itself and focus only on the issue at hand. The death penalty, legally speaking, must only be dealt by the state. This is because the state needs to maintain a monopoly on violence, which perhaps is its right. But has a state the right to embarrass its citizens?
Putting a violent criminal to death may be a means to give closure to the family, but what is accomplished by making a spectacle of death? Does the state intend to offer a live theatre stage for those with such fetishes? And if so, will there be popcorn?
If the state does cave in to this gory demand, how long will it be till it approves of even more gruesome punishments to appease those with fetishes for violence? Will we begin amputating thieves’ hands? Will the slippery slope from public hangings lead to public lynching? Or, will the state take a moment to pause and consider its duty to maintain public decency and work on proven preventative solutions, rather than failed punitive ones?
Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2018.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
