LAHORE: (June 29): The Punjab University Law Debating Society organised a two-day model parliamentary debates on “Death Penalty” at the Environmental Law Auditorium. Vice-Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran, Dr Saeed Ahmad Nagra, Dr Liquat Ali, Ms Shazia Qureshi, the convener of the workshop, and a large number of students attended the concluding session.

The three government speakers (students) who proposed the motion regarding abolishment of death penalty included Affan Asad Taj from Law College, Amina Ejaz from Institute of Administrative Sciences, and Syed Waqar from School of Biological Sciences. The speakers (Opposition) who opposed the motion were Shamaoon Ahmed from Pharmacy, Bilal from Law College and Marium Gulshan from IBA.

The Government members (students) highlighted the fact that 137 countries have abolished the death penalty in law and practice. They termed it as “a cruel, and inhuman punishment which had no place in a modern criminal justice system” and they proposed to convert the capital punishment into life imprisonment. The Opposition members (students) argued that the death penalty is necessary for heinous and cruel crimes and that death penalty is mandatory to create fear in the hearts of criminals. The govt members countered the argument that crimes carrying the death penalty have significantly increased in Pakistan and that the opposition’s theory is flawed. The debate boiled down to the reply speeches where leader of the opposition Shamaoon Ahmed portrayed the feelings of the families of murder victims. However, the proposition came back strongly when Affan Taj, leader of the proposition, gave a stunning reply speech and countered the major arguments of the opposition. He highlighted the inefficiency of the criminal judicial system in Pakistan and pointed out that many of the executions carried out were held without due process of law and convicts faced trials that did not meet international fair trial standards. He also argued that most of the convicts are innocent and capital punishment is used as a discriminatory tool against the poor class.

The Vice Chancellor lauded the efforts of the Law Debating Society for organizing and promoting this format of debate. He said debating is the best method to resolve conflicts and one should chose persuasion over coercion and violence. The VC told the students that at Model UN Conferences in Netherlands and Germany, PU 12-member team has won four Diplomacy Awards and had been declared ‘The Best’ among over 450 delegates of students from across the world.

This was the first-ever model parliamentary debate held in PU. The aim of the debate/workshop was to promote the parliamentary style of debates amongst students. Affan Asad Taj, president of the PU Law Debating Society and Hamza Sadiq Khan, a well known student parliamentary speaker and adjudicator, convened the workshop on the first day. The participants were educated of the rules and methods of parliamentary format of debate.