Senate abolishes death penalty as a punishment to despicable crimes

Senate abolishes death penalty as a punishment to despicable crimes

          Human rights activists demand greater implementation

ISLAMABAD, July 20, 2025, In a historic move on the legal history of Pakistan, a reform bill against the death penalty passed by Senate, which remodeled the death penalty in two crimes in special cases namely publicly stripping women and harboring hijackers. The bill that intervenes in death penalty findings by giving life imprisonment to convicted offenders has raised a mixed wave of congratulations and trepidation among legal practitioners, human rights campaigners, and ordinary people.

This bill which was passed on the final deliberation and debate after several weeks is being termed as a good step toward bringing Pakistan into compliance with international standards of human rights vis-a-vis criminal justice system. Nevertheless, they are cautioned by critics that any legislative change without severe implementation procedures might have minimal practical effects.

History and Legal Reform Background

Past legislations used to sentence persons convicted of stripping women in front of crowds, a practice that is not only perceived as a brutal assault to the body but it is also viewed as an act of terrorism and under the past laws the culprits were punishable through capital punishment. Similarly, individuals who were convicted of harboring the hijackers including accommodating terrorists or involvement in hijacking aircrafts were subjected to death penalty by anti-terror laws.

The new laws now impose life imprisonment—which in laws of Pakistan is 25 years minimum—as a punishment to these crimes instead of death penalty.

In the upper house where the bill was tabled by Federal Law Minister Ahsan Baig, the minister said the reform is intended to modernize the penal code in Pakistan as well as make justice more just and proportionate.

Justice should be not only tough but also world or human. Capital punishment is a trend moving towards the international system and Pakistan should not be left behind in respect to human rights in the world order was the statement of Baig in a senate debate.

The Responses to Rights Activists

The move to abolish the death penalty on such capital crimes has been tentatively welcomed by the human rights activists and civil society.

Sarah Aslam, the Executive Director of Pakistan Human Rights Forum (PHRF) intensively applauded the action of the Senate and noted that comprehensive reform was still badly needed.

It is a very important move towards life and dignity. But we should not forget that not all the victims of public humiliations and gender-based violence receive justice because the judicial system is not flawed, but they are not prosecuted due to inefficient work, as well as the insufficient gathering of evidence and extremism of the gender acceptance of people, Aslam said.

Other entities shared similar sentiments since they pointed out that the safeguarding of the women and deterrence of terrorism should not be limited to parking reform. They also demanded more policing, high-speed tribunals of gender-based violence, and added funds in the protection of witnesses.

Political Divide and Partisan Politics

Although the bill passed by the majority, it did not go so well without opposition. A number of conservative legislators feared that abolition of the death penalty would give the boost and courage to the perpetrators of the heinous crimes.

Senator Hafiz Abdul Rehman of Muttahida Ulema Front voted against the bill saying that some of the actions should be punished with the utmost severity especially the crimes of moral decadence and terrorism.

This tells the wrong message to our enemies and criminals. We need to have our laws to reflect our value as a nation and some of crimes are vile to an extent that only death penalty can provide justice, he asserted.

The government bench however reasoned out that judicial mistakes and ambiguity in the determination of death penalty have made people lose credence in their effectiveness.

Statistics by the Justice Project Pakistan show that wrong trials, poor legal aid, and forced confessions have been involved in more than 80 percent of death cases in the past decade, and this is a cause of much concern about miscarriage of justice in death penalty convictions.

Legal and Foreign Consequences

This legislative development will be felt across borders especially among groups championing human rights like Amnesty International, and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Both have in the past criticized Pakistan concerning its use of capital punishment.

The decision is also in line with the resolution by the UN General Assembly passed in 2022 that urged a global moratorium on the death penalty which Pakistan at that time had abstained, but this time round seems to be making the move towards addressing it.

The reduced culpability in which the death penalty has been reduced to by legal scholars in Pakistan is symbolic because the country still applies the death penalty to a handful of crimes committed, such as, blasphemy, treason, and murder.

It is not a total reformation of capital punishment, and it is a significant corrective. It has been recognized that not every heinous crime requires irreversible sentence, said Dr. Kamran Haider, professor of law at Quaid-i-Azam University.

The Way Out: The Difficulties and Hope

Although the reform is futuristic, several issues relating to its implementation are outstanding. The criminal justice system in Pakistan has been criticized many times due to backlog case, insufficient forensic infrastructure, and less considerations towards the victims.

Activists claim that to turn the legislative reform into protection that matters to the victims, the state should pay attention to:

• Sensitizing law enforcement officers on the protection of gender-based crimes.

• Bettering forensic and digital evidence systems.

• Making sure that the investigations of crimes are fast and fair, particularly in the rural setting.

• Organizing programs on the rights and reporting channels to enlighten societies on the issue.

There is also the demand of improved rehabilitation and reintegration of convicts of life imprisonment—a side that is usually disregarded in the Pakistani Penal system.

The move of the Senate to remove death penalty of striping the women in the street and admitting the hijacking in Pakistan is a radical controversial leap in the legislative process of Pakistan. In as much as it implies an increasing interest in human rights and judicial reform, it also reveals the gross necessity to create changes in the system of pursuing, administering, and experiencing justice. Even as the bill has now been sent to the National Assembly to be ratified, the focus is still on politicians and civil society so that justice is not only changed in words, but in experience.