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" DOES CHOPPING OFF WITH A BIGGER KNIFE CHOPS OFF MORE   DOES CHOPPING OFF WITH A BIGGER KNIFE CHOPS OFF MORE?   IS THERE ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HARSHNESS OF A PUNISHMENT AND ITS DETERENCE?   By   Tipu Salman Makhdoom Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan   The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience....oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.   INTRODUCTION: Punishment, to say the least, is horrible;1 a conscience and deliberate infringement of rights of a person, on behalf of the society. Just as in a living body--a biological society--a cell loses its individuality and is liable to be eliminated if it starts working against the living system of which it is a part; so does a person loses his individuality in a human society and is liable to infringement of his rights (punishment) if s/he starts working against the political decisions of the society.   The institution of Punishment, however, raises extremely difficult, though very interesting, intellectual and philosophical questions, such as; Should Punishment be inflicted as a means to an end or as an end in itself? If it's a means (which the author will argue that it is), then what should be its ultimate aim and how should that be achieved?   Starting with the pre-historic conception of Punishment, we will have a bird's eye view of different dominant arguments about the rationale of Punishment and finally will take a glimpse of utility of various approaches, for which .punishment is used, concluding which approach are we using and why is it not working in our system?   EVOLUTION OF PUNISHMENT?:   Though punishment in general terms is a social term and in popular meanings varies from the wrath of gods to the scolding of a caring parent, its legal meanings are…