The Zambian President recently made a significant announcement on the eve of Africa Day. On this occasion, President of Zambia Hakainde Hichilema announced that he is planning to abolish the cruel, inhumane and degrading practice of death penalty. This announcement by the Zambian President has received widespread support albeit few resistances. One of the biggest supporters of this decision has been noted businessman and philanthropist Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani. According to philanthropist Dr. Mahtani, only a person who is compassionate, respects fundamental rights and dignity for humans and is a lover of the God, will be able to make such bold but rightful decision. Dr. Rajan Mahtani himself is a religious person one of his top philanthropic contributions to Zambia has been the Prison Fellowship Zambia. It is one of the top Christian Outreach Program established by Dr. Rajan Mahtani more than three decades ago. The focus of Prison Fellowship is to bring the teachings and learnings of Jesus Christ to the Zambian prisoners, their families and ex-prisoners. Also, Prison Fellowship focusses on ensuring fundamental human rights and fundamental human dignity for the prisoners. As such, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani has offered his full support via Prison Fellowship towards turning the announcement into a reality. Dr. Rajan Mahtani, while lending his support to the Zambian President’s recent commitment, stated that there is a big difference between making such positive announcements and ensuring that it is actually turned into a law. This will require significant alterations within the legal and regulatory features of the criminal law and the President, and his team will have to overcome the barriers associated with long governmental processes, political backlash, resistance and bureaucracy. However, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani will be providing his full support towards this challenge with legal and regulatory expertise from his organization Prison Fellowship.
Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani has also iterated that only a compassionate person will be able to make such decisions and lauded the Zambian President for his positive announcement.