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Time is running out

Qudsia Kadri

As the holy month of Ramadan, a month of blessings and forgiveness passes quickly to an end, time is also running out for Mirza Tahir Khan the 36 year old man who faces the death penalty and hanging at the end of the month of Ramadan.
What amazes us when we decided to write about his predicament almost three weeks ago, we are indeed surprised as to why none of our human rights organisations, our NGOs, our very vocal activists have chosen to remain silent. Silent over the hanging of a man whose sentence is legally flawed, a judgement of a dissenting Sharia Court decision. As the world day against the death penalty is being celebrated on the 10th of October, where the world day organized by the world coalition is devoted to the theme "the death penalty - A failure of justice," drawing attention to violation of international standards, including the right to a fair trial, in cases in which the death penalty is applied, we look on helplessly as Mirza Tahir faces the death row. The world mission has carried out extensive fact finding missions since 2003 in collaboration with its member organizations in countries like Pakistan, Botswana, Morocco, Jordan and Azerbaijan, and the findings indeed do not come as a surprise. The reports of the missions state categorically that many prisoners condemned to the death penalty have not received a fair trial. The findings are quite ironical coming from a foreign mission because these very factors are the essence of Islamic Justice. The reports document and confirm the errors in the judicial processes leading to the imposition of the death penalty including confessions extracted under torture, and other unreliable evidence, lack of access to lawyers and evidence and confession extracted under police pressure.
Mirza Tahir went through a procedure where he had for the initial two weeks no access to a lawyer, an 18 year old who had been in Pakistan from the U.K. for just one day and was accused of killing the cab driver he had hired from the railway station to take him to his ancestral village. The Shariah Bench who convicted Tahir had Justice Abdul Waheed Siddiqui's 59-page dissenting judgement, which clearly stated that police brought false witness and "fabricated evidence in a shameful manner."
The recent uproar in neighboring India over the death penalty of Mohammad Afzal Guru convicted in the attack on parliament has brought all the activists, the party lines - mainstream as well as separatists to seek a review of the death sentence awarded to Afzal to the Indian President. We are left wondering as to where is the voice of our leaders, opposition and others, if a so-called Muslim terrorist who is to be hanged has brought the justice system and the death penalty in question in Hindu majority India, then how sad a situation it is that the very basis of Islamic justice which calls for evidence or witness to the scene of crime and is totally non-existent in Mirza Tahir's case. How sad it is that a form of retribution in which blood thirst and revenge masquerade as righteousness and correct justice should be allowed without ample proof or justification. It is a proven fact that the best judicial systems can go wrong by holding an innocent person guilty. Capital punishment leaves no room for correction. Death is final, it is irreversible. In the United States, over 500 people have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 but more than 120 condemned prisoners were released because they had been wrongfully convicted. Last year, the only black woman ever sent to the electric chair in Georgia was granted pardon - 60 years too late. She was a black maid who killed a white man who had held her in slavery and had threatened her life.
Here, Tahir was attacked and the gun, which belonged to the Taxi driver had gone off in the struggle, the right to self defence exists in Islam and to defend an attack on one's life is not a pre-meditated act of murder. It is not an evil plan to eliminate or kill a person. Let us not interpret the justice of Allah in such a manner that a man is punished and taken to the gallows for a crime he did not plan, for a killing which was beyond his wildest imagination. Mirza Tahir had no clue what was in store for him when he hired the taxi. He had no clue that the night would be his last night of freedom, he had no idea that the night would turn to 18 miserable years of jail, convictions, no contact with family members in the UK, death of his father and now death, one morning he will be blindfolded before dawn, taken to the gallows in Rawalpindi Central Jail and hanged, hanged for a murder of which he insists he is innocent. The only hope in the jail-spent life of 36-year Mirza Tahir Hussain is clemency from President General Pervaiz Musharraf. The President should act sagaciously and commute his sentence, he should be forgiving and show compassion. It is the President's constitutional and moral duty to prevent miscarriage of justice. Mr. President exercise your right and commute Tahir's sentence.
As per article 45 of the Pakistan's constitution implicitly states: "The President shall have power to grant pardon, reprieve and respite, and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority."

As Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: "To let nine criminals go free is preferable to convicting one innocent man."