Death penalty

THIS is with reference to the article The Ultimate Penalty, (July 13).

The writer seems very emphatic in suggesting that the capital punishment should be abolished in Pakistan, since it is doing more harm than good.

He also emphasized that our impaired justice system sends more innocent people to their deaths, rather than those who are really responsible.

I would like to stress here that if the justice system is impaired and misusing capital punishment, abolishing the latter will do nothing to improve the justice system.

If capital punishment in our society fails to deter criminals, then isn’t it the fault of the law enforcement agencies rather than the law itself?

Capital punishment has been clearly permitted in the Holy Quran in the following verse: “We ordained therein for them: Life for life; eye for eye; nose for nose; ear for ear; tooth for tooth; and wounds equal for equal.

“But if anyone remits the retaliation by way of charity it is an act of atonement for himself. And if any fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) wrong-doers.” Surah Al-Maidah; Ayah 45.

We, as the citizens of an Islamic republic, should not be questioning those laws in our constitution, which are in conjunction with Allah (SWT)’s rules.

To suggest that capital punishment should be abolished because the justice system is impaired, is analogous to throwing away the apples when we know that it is the oranges which are rotten.