Murder cases reduced by one-third after death penalty’s revival

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has seen a sharp decline in murder cases in all parts of the country following the lifting of over six years’ old ban on death penalty in December 2014.
Countrywide official crime figures show that during the first three months (January till March) of 2014 a total of 2989 murder cases were registered in all the four provinces. During the corresponding period in 2015 the murder of such cases are 2003, which shows almost 1/3rd decline.
According to the official figures, besides murder, other serious crimes have also showed considerable decline. Attempt to murder cases registered in the first three months of 2014 were 3143. During the Jan-March period of 2015, such cases declined to 2207.
Kidnapping and abduction cases registered in the first quarter of 2014 were 4399 while in 2015 the number is 4023.Interestingly the crime related to robbery, burglary, cattle theft and other thefts also saw a conspicuous decline. The official data show that there were 944 cases of robbery in Jan-March 2014 but 668 in the corresponding period of 2015.
There were 4967 cases of robbery in this period of 2014 but in 2015 this figure has come down to 4143. Burglary cases registered in Jan-March 2014 were 4704 while in 2015 the number has declined to 4140. The case of cattle theft and other thefts have also reduced drastically.
Ban on death penalty was lifted following the December 2014 attack on Peshawar school. Since then dozens of convicted terrorists, murderers and those involved in other heinous crimes have been hanged. The moratorium on death penalty in Pakistan was placed in 2008 by the then President Asif Ali Zardari on pressure from the European countries.
During all these six years there has been great demand from police and other security and law enforcing agencies to execute those who have been sentenced to death by the court of law. It was argued that without the execution of condemned prisoners, it is not possible to check the heinous crimes like terrorism, target killing, murders, kidnapping for ransom etc.
There have also been demands from the superior judiciary for the lifting of moratorium on death penalty. The PML-N, which has been criticising the previous PPP government’s decision for placing moratorium on death penalty, continued with this policy when came to power.
Initially, an announcement was made by the PML-N government to lift the ban but before any execution and following a threat from TTP the Prime Minister re-imposed the moratorium. This ban, however, was lifted soon after the December 16, 2014 Peshawar school attack. This was the first of the 20-point National Action Plan, conceived and implemented following the Peshawar school attack.
However, some local and foreign NGOs are campaigning to get the death penalty banned. Some of them launched what later turned out to be a complete fraud - “Save Shafqat Hussain” - campaign, which was aimed at maligning the criminal justice system of the country.