Protecting our children

As a mother, I worry about the future of my children. And as a representative of the people, I worry about the future of our country’s children.

How is it that a minor — someone under the age of 18 — is not legally permitted to vote or drive but is deemed fit to be hanged at the gallows? As Nelson Mandela put it, “Any country, any society that does not care for its children is no nation at all.”

This is why, in my capacity as a member of the provincial legislature of Punjab, I have put forward a motion to discuss why juvenile offenders have not been provided relief under the presidential notification of 2001. The notification granted remission to all those juvenile offenders whose death sentences had been confirmed prior to the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) of 2000 that prohibited the execution of minors.

In 2018, the ordinance was replaced with the more comprehensive Juvenile Justice System Act, but the presidential notification continues to fall on deaf ears.

Some stories, however, are begging to be heard. Take the example of Muhammad Iqbal, who has spent more than half his life on death row in prison. Sentenced to death for shooting a man during a highway robbery attempt in a village of Mandi Bahauddin when he was just 17 years old, Iqbal’s trial was full of glaring inconsistencies.

Moreover, the testimonies provided by witnesses in Iqbal’s case were very weak — it would have been near impossible to identify the culprit in the dead of the night on an unlit road where the incident took place. There was also an indication that the witnesses were pressured by the police into giving their statements. In addition, Iqbal was tried in an Anti-Terrorism Court under a non-compoundable offence, but the family of the victim has acknowledged that Iqbal has spent enough time in prison and they have no desire to see him hanged.

Iqbal lives his death everyday — watching, waiting. Imprisoned in 1998, Iqbal is now nearly 40 years old. Integration into society will be a challenge for him. The state does not provide reintegration or rehabilitation programs. Even though Iqbal longs to join society outside the prison walls, becoming a contributing member of society will be difficult — further hindered by the social stigma attached to those imprisoned.

Muhammad Anwar is another man who has spent 26 years in prison, 21 of them on death row, for a crime he was arrested for when he was 17. In 1993, an argument erupted during a football match in Vehari between Anwar, his two brothers and some other boys. A brawl ensued outside Anwar’s house after the match during which three people were injured, one of whom died around a month later.

At the end of an arduous five-year trial, Anwar was the only one who found himself facing death by hanging — a sentence which he should not have been given as per the tenets of the law. This casts a shadow of doubt over the judicial procedure and principle of justice that judges are to uphold.

Life in incarceration has taken a toll on Anwar’s health. He has suffered three heart attacks which have left him paralysed with limited mobility. Anwar’s family has repeatedly appealed to the Supreme Court, sessions court, Lahore High Court, the Presidency, the Supreme Court’s Human Rights Cell, and the Ministry of Interior to consider his juvenility. Each time, it has been either ignored or rejected.

His black warrant was also issued despite a pending juvenility plea in the high court. Fortunately, his execution was stayed at the last minute. But his imprisonment alone, keeping in mind his ailing health, is a gross violation of human rights and in contravention to international conventions Pakistan is a signatory to.

On August 18, 2003, the Lahore High Court received a letter from the provincial ministry of interior mentioning Iqbal and other juvenile offenders entitled to remission under the presidential notification. The letter also stated that, according to Article 45 of the constitution, the notification should have come into effect immediately and on its own, requiring no

need for a mercy plea to be sent to the president.

Had Iqbal and Anwar’s sentences been commuted, they would have completed their life imprisonment by now. This is proof that the current criminal justice and legal system does not uphold the principle of justice for the most vulnerable in our society. Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. Even when the principles of justice have failed Iqbal and Azam, the possibility of correcting that injustice still remains.

The writer is an advocate, MPA in the Punjab Assembly, and chairperson of the Standing Committee of Law and Parliamentary Affairs.