Fully convinced that ‘punishment is the best deterrent to crush crime’ I emphasized on the subject many times in the past but am disappointed to find that it carries no importance. While the news of daily crimes are ruining the peoples’ peace of mind it appears as if the rulers are absolutely unconcerned about the horrifying incidences of robberies, murders, rapes, kidnappings, drugs smuggling and other heinous crimes, turning our country into a heaven for criminals.
While in foreign countries drug smugglers are awarded capital punishment, in Pakistan if arrested, they either go scot-free or escape with minor punishment. As per two such cases reported in the press last week, a 56 years old British grandmother was sentenced to death for smuggling cocaine into the Indonesian island of Bali. In the second case Iran hanged five people who were convicted of drug trafficking. A similar case occurred in Pakistan last Sunday when the Islamabad police arrested a lady smuggling heroin, although she confessed to smuggling the drug from Peshawar to Rawalpindi, let us see how our crime loving authorities deal with the case.
The horrific instances of kidnapping appear every other day in which millions of rupees are demanded as ransom. Sometimes the kidnappers are arrested but their fate is never known. Only the other day the Motorway police arrested two kidnappers who were fleeing after abducting a two years old boy from Lahore for ransom. During preliminary investigation the accused confessed to have abducted the boy for sale to a third party. The commendable act of the police, confession by the accused and statement of the boy’s parents is the evidence strong enough to punish the criminals. Why can’t the case be decided in a month or so and the punishment announced by the media in bold headlines to act as a deterrent. Similarly while in foreign countries the rape cases are decided through DNA tests and the culprits even awarded capital punishment, in Pakistan the criminals are let off ‘for lack of evidence.’ To crush crime the award of severe punishment is essential.
RAFI NASIM,
Lahore, February 11.