GUWAHATI: Pakistan's Parliament on Friday, 7 December passed a resolution calling for the public hanging of convicted child killers and rapists amid increasing incidents of crime against them.
The resolution was passed with majority votes as it was supported by all lawmakers except those belonging to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Former Premier Benazir Bhutto.
Former Premier and PPP leader Raja Pervez Ashraf said that "Pubic hanging was violation of UN rules and punishment cannot mitigate crimes. Ramping up the severity of punishments does not result in a reduction in crime."
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Khan presented the resolution in the House. "This house demands that to stop these shameful and brutal killings of children and give a strong deterrent effect, the killers and rapists should not only be given death penalty by hanging but they should be hanged publicly," it read.
However, the resolution was condemned by two ministers who were not present in the house at the time of voting.
"Strongly condemn this resolution, this is just another grave act in line with brutal civilisation practices, societies act in a balanced way barberiaism is not answer to crimes...... this is another expression of extremism," Minister for Science, Fawad Chaudhry tweeted in reaction.
Human Rights Minister, Shireen Mazari tweeted,"The resolution passed in NA (National Assembly) today on public hangings was across party lines and not a government-sponsored resolution but an individual act. Many of us oppose it - our MOHR (Ministry of Human Rights) strongly opposes this.Unfortunately I was in a meeting and wasn't able to go to NA."
The resolution referred to the brutal killing and sexual assault of an eight-year-old girl in Nowshera area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in 2018.
Meanwhile in India, the hanging of the four convicts of the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case has been dangling. The Delhi court on Friday dismissed a plea of the Tihar jail authorities for a new date and time of hanging the four convicts. The Supreme Court will hear the plea of the centre on February 11, 2020.