‘Centuries-old execution system should come to an end now, Says a Hangman.

Salman Shahzad

Since times immemorial, human has always committed crimes and I am cocksure there should have been rules and regulations how to overcome the ever-growing trend of crimes. With the pace of human intellect, the black side (the wolf inside human) also started growing and when the world entered into the age of scientific revolutions, inventions, discoveries, rationalism and democracy; we have one thing in legacy from our ancestors—hanging human for crimes while that’s quite vague when and where it took its birth. Nonetheless one thing is quite clear and that is the system has always been riddled with flaws and lapses as it is too troublesome to get into reality as one basic question always click mind—who is innocent and who is guilty. As globally countless human rights groups are vociferously calling for the end of ‘hanging tradition’ and a number of states have come to agreement that it should come to an end now but in Pakistan unfortunately it is still intact. Lead Pakistan has conducted an interview with a 57-year old hangman to know what a hangman feels when he hangs a human. Let’s see what he feels?

“The feelings and experiences I have been going through for the past 27 years have been so gnawing that it's too hard to even bring it down to words and paper because feelings are something very hard to describe.

Human beings are very emotional and touched to one another by invisible bonds—bonds of love, respect and humanity. It is hard to see even an animal dying in our surrounding. Killing a human being with your own hands is inexplicable. Sharing his experiences he said that he does not want to hang anyone because most of the times he feels that may be the person whom he is going to hang is innocent but duty is duty and order is order so he will have to carry it out regardless of the fact how much indelible imprints it leave on his mind. 

The sole executioner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Sadiq Masih who has been working as hangman for the past 27 years, during an exclusive interview said, “I think it is time that government should put an end to hanging—capital punishment as the judicial killing cannot guarantee peace to any nation-state.”

The 57-years old executioner, Sadiq Masih (junior) was trained by a well-known hangman of Lahore’s Kot Lakpat Jail, Sadiq Masih (senior), who defied hanging the former premier, Zukfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979. Later, his uncle Tara Masih, the official hangman was brought from Bahawlphur in C-130 Hercules to pull the lever off.

It is worth mentioning here that Tara Masih’s elder brother hung a famous freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in 1931. That time his brother was in Lahore Central Prison.

 Sadiq Masih (junior) had hung more than a hundred persons during his 27 years of service as a process of legal execution.

 He told that when he was young he was used to visit his teacher’s home at Lahore every year to celebrate Basant festival (Jashn-e-Baharaah). “At night time my teacher [Sadiq Masih] used to narrate his stories and taught me how to hang a person. In 1984 I was given the job of an official hangman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the then jailer of Peshawar Prison, Haji Shah Muhammad,” he narrated.

He said that none except Christians entered into this profession in the sub-content since British rule as this is a difficult duty to fulfill and needed expertise.

  “There are six prisons in the province where offenders, awarded death sentence are hung by neck. These prisons are in Kohat, Dara Ismail Khan, Peshawar, Abbottabad, Bannu and Timergara,” he revealed.

He said legal systems always make some mistakes and every one knows the loopholes in our judicial system and feeble prosecution, I saw a number of convicted people who confessed to have committed the crimes and what they were going to hang for but simultaneously I also witnessed a number of people who used to weep bitterly over their innocence.

It is better not to hang 99 offenders just for saving the life of an innocent, he opined for once you hang an innocent you feel remorse during your lifetime. And this is too itchy and heart rending when it comes. 

He recalled that initially he used to hang one to two daily across the province.

These days, he spends much of his time under a hundred years old tree in historical Peshawar Central Prison; setting with his friends and memorizing the ‘bad days’ of executions, because since 2009, the PPP-led government has refused to reject the mercy petitions for more than 8050 prisoners; waiting for gallows in death row.

He said with sorrow that often he wonders what he would answer to Jesus if he asked him why he had hung innocent men.

Commenting on the capital punishment, Senior Provincial Minister Raheem Dad told Lead Pakistan that his party wished to change the tradition of legal executions as the world has been changed. “It will be better to give a chance to the prisoners waiting in death row for gallows as I am quite sure they will change if given a chance. We cannot justify these legal killings. To punish the offenders we can extend their sentences but hanging them will not be a fair decision,” he commented.

There has been a marked increase in hangings especially under the military-rulers particularly in President Pervez Musharraf’s regime. According to an estimated figure by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 134 hangings took place in Pakistan during 2007, placing Pakistan among the world’s top country, where legal executions has became a norm.

Those sitting in the echelon of power should review the incumbent judicial policy on hangings and if possible they should work hard to put a complete halt to the ‘execution tradition’ for saving a life is tantamount to saving the entire humanity and taking a life is as if the entire humanity is killed.