“Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” — Phil Donahue
Until December 2022, suicide was considered a crime under Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (PPC). The section read as follows:
“Attempt to commit suicide: Whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offence, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.”
Obviously, only a survivor could be charged with this felony, as a dead person could not be penalised. This section was repealed by the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 202,2, and the offence stood decriminalised. Britain, under whose colonial rule until 1947 the PPC was formulated, had already done away with this provision with the passage of the Suicide Act in 1961, but it took us more than half a century to follow suit. Research suggests the delay was on account of resistance on the part of the Muslim clergy, as according to all schools of Islamic jurisprudence, suicide is haram (prohibited; therefore, anyone attempting to take his or her own life had to be admonished.
While justifying this amendment, then Member-in-Charge, Senator Shahadat Awan, wrote: “The issue of suicide ought to be dealt with as a disease and should be treated as one. Additionally, punishment is meant to create deterrence for a healthy person, not for a mentally disturbed individual. The objective of this amendment is to decriminalise the suicide attempt by any person, as it is always done with some depression or mental illness or disorders.”
In other words, if the state cannot resolve the personal issues of individuals, it has no right to stop them from committing suicide.
Anyhow, regardless of whether killing oneself should or should not be viewed as a crime, the fact remains that a premature death is always traumatic for those who are closely associated with the deceased, even if it is part of their culture, like the Japanese hara-kiri. The bereaved are gripped with guilt for not paying attention to the aggrieved people or helping them to resolve their problems to prevent the commission of self-destruction.
Inflicting pain on oneself is certainly not easy. A slight headache can be extremely discomforting, let alone inflicting wounds or, worse, extinguishing one’s life. One has to be really mentally disturbed to go to such extreme lengths. This does not happen overnight but is a consequence of multifaceted factors with many contributing variables, including but not restricted to neurobiology, personal and family history, stressful events, and overall socio-cultural environment. Studies confirm that suicide can be seen as a behaviour motivated by the desire to escape from unbearable psychological pain. Roman philosopher and statesman Lucius Annaeus Seneca aptly said: “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
Undue pressure from the high-ups at the behest of self-serving politicians forces officers to act against their conscience; on the other hand, injustice causes them disgrace beyond their tolerance level
According to a study, there is one completed suicide every 40 seconds, while 5% of people in the world try to kill themselves at least once during their lifetime. Around 79% of suicides are from low or middle-income countries. In Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, the last couple of decades have seen a steady increase in the number of suicides, but this trend among civil and military service officers is most astonishing.
A news report says that at least five confirmed cases of CSS/PSP officers dying by suicide have been documented from 2014 to 2025. These include Jahanzib Khan Kakar and Abrar Hussain Nekokara from the police department, Sohail Tipu, Bilal Pasha, and Nabiha Noshirwani, and now Adeel Akbar, Superintendent of Islamabad Police.
As bureaucracy gets more and more influenced by state politics and the justice system is in total decline, the occurrence of such incidents should not be surprising. In fact, there is an immediate need for introspection to learn the underlying reasons behind these tragedies. Where, on the one hand, undue pressure from the high-ups at the behest of self-serving politicians forces officers to act against their conscience, on the other, injustice causes them disgrace beyond their tolerance level. Additionally, service stresses such as promotions, confidential reports, and inquiry committees can also have compelling consequences, especially for individuals with weak nervous systems.
The suicide note written to the Chief Justice of Pakistan by Brigadier (Retd.) Asad Munir is quite an eye-opener. He claimed that he took his life to avoid humiliation from being handcuffed and paraded in front of the media by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He accused NAB officials of being “incompetent, rude, arrogant, untrained” and of making assumptions of his guilt without properly hearing his side. The deceased was a former Inter-Services Intelligence official who had previously served as a member of the Capital Development Authority.
Many would agree that the world today is generally engulfed with a great deal of tension, together with economic hardships for its denizens. To make matters worse, advanced technologies are inducing layoffs, causing further frustration for the unemployed. Pakistan too is badly afflicted by these developments, with high levels of corruption and incompetence in both private and public sectors, poor governance, and injustice adding salt to injuries. These are already depressing factors that have contributed to increasing episodes of suicide among the people, so how can public servants not be affected?
Loss of lives is devastating because the normal death of an individual affects not just the one who passes away but the entire circle of family and friends, and if it is suicide, it leaves indelible marks on their personalities. The main cause for concern behind such a harsh act is the reason for committing suicide, which keeps haunting the minds of loved ones for the rest of their lives.