With all respect and honour to our creator Allah (God), I refer the following Ayats of Holy Quran Surah 5:31, Surah 17:70 and the same issues as mentioned in the Bible, and around the tale of Abel and Cain (Habil and Qabil).
“Then Allah sent a raven, who scratched the ground, to show him how to hide the shame of his brother. 'Woe is me!' said he; 'Was I not even able to be as this raven, and to hide the shame of my brother?' Then he became full of regrets,” (Quran, Surah 5:31).
The honourable judge's statement in paragraph 66 about convicted General Pervez Musharraf, “His corpse be dragged to D-Chowk, Pakistan and be hanged at public place for 03 days” are shocking and worthy of condemnation – not only in legal and moral terms but also within religious parameters.
Surely to convict someone for a penalty up to capital punishment is the right and job of a judge. But demanding that the corpse of any convicted person be dragged and left to hang for “03 days” in a public place is a question mark on the righteousness, decency, compliance, honesty, trustworthiness, morality, integrity and competence of the Pakistani judicial system. And this is a sad thing to note, for therein many great judges have served.
The question arises as to what type of cognitive dissonance had developed in the mindset of a judge for such a reactionary demand? What are the desired objectives through this act and how will it help the public to develop healthy cognition, or serve as a good lesson? Is it not more likely to bring about unhealthy radicalization and encourage people to adopt extremely violent, even barbarian feelings?
Equally, looking at the contents of the judgement, specifically “statement page 66,” it is vital to use a method to evaluate the mindset (before writing the statement) in the context of historic references and scientific barometers exclusively – as the competence of such a jurist is already challenged by the public, legal experts and many famous lawyers.
The content of the statement firstly remind us of mindsets of aggression, barbarity and violent intentions. These are required to issue such instructions as well as to implement them in practice.
For the last twenty years a great deal of research has been done globally to define the human mindset's deviation from normal functioning in which 4 rational functions become distorted and vulnerable. Through this, the person becomes a victim of the radicalization process, leading to violence.
It is a silent process but has over 100-plus indicators. These indicators help us to identify the process and what stage it has reached at any given time. These indicators results from diverse driving variables (root causes, triggers, catalyst) and that’s why every indicator can be output of one or more deriving variable. The most effective methods used are known as knowledge-based method for scientific and systematic mapping of the mindset.
Now we evaluate the statement of the honourable judge and map the contents through the DSS decision-making support system as shown in the table.
“We direct the Law enforcement Agencies to strive their best level the fugitive/convict and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan and be hanged for 03 days”
It should be noted the second part is the pure indicator therein individual shows signs of radicalization because the level of extreme hate leads to striking against even the dead body. The emotional functions show revenge as driver and a state of satisfaction is achieved against cognitive dissonance by adding the second part.
This is just the analytic side of a small statement to identify the cognitive state of mind through few indicators. Therefore, it’s advisable that the Pakistani state administration and institutions must develop their expertise to identify and filter mindsets which are vulnerable at early stages before and after recruitment of officials, so as to avoid institutional and national scandals. Any radicalized mindset at any decision-making level of administration, prosecution and justice can be a great advantage for radicalized criminals and terrorists to be free from prosecution under law.
The verdict on the case of former President Pervez Musharraf's case as written by the judge can be eye-opening for the people and state of Pakistan and can be a great opportunity to understand the radicalization process as one of the threats to national security and public safety.