SC orders Pemra to submit list of cases on campaign against judiciary, institutions

KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to submit a list of cases pending against the Pemra orders in high courts and the Supreme Court with regard to the smear campaign against the state institutions including the judiciary so that the record of the aforesaid proceedings could be examined.

As the court started hearing the case about anti-judiciary campaign, Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali recused himself from the bench.

The SC’s four-member bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, heard the Sindh High Court Bar Association’s petition against kidnapping of Chief Justice of Sindh High Court’s son, Owais Ali Shah, and the vilification campaign against the judges through social and other electronic media.

The Attorney-General of Pakistan, Ashtar Ausaf, submitted that the cyber crime law had been sent to the National Assembly after some necessary amendments by the Senate, and it would be promulgated soon.

He said that after the promulgation of the law, the issues with regard to cyber crimes would be addressed so that the smear campaign against the state institutions may not be initiated in the garb of freedom of speech.

The Chairman of Pemra, Absar Alam, sought time to submit details of cases pending in courts against Pemra’s action against TV channels for airing smear campaign against the state institutions, including the judiciary.

The court adjourned the hearing of the case till September 8.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Thursday asked the IG of Sindh to take steps for scrutiny of private security guards as there could be a possibility that the Indian secret agency, RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), or the Taliban recruit people from these private security companies for inside information about any institution.

Hearing the Karachi law and order suo moto implementation case, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice, observed that not a single security guard deputed at Quetta’s Civil Hospital had been trained to prevent such a suicide attack.

It directed the police to take preventive measures instead of waiting for some incident to happen.

The chief justice observed that there was a need to create an awareness among the masses to not to rush to the spot of an incident as terrorists target hospitals where the injured of an incident were shifted for treatment.

The court observed that unfortunately we do not learn lessons from the past and wait for another incident to happen. The court observed that we are living in special circumstances as terrorists were targeting soft targets like hospitals and other public places through planning.

The CJP observed that many of the crimes were reportedly committed through private security guards who are recruited without any formal verification by private security companies, and there should be an effective check on recruitment of private security guards.

The court observed that protection of life and liberty of the people was the top-most priority, and there should be no compromise over it. The IG of Sindh, AD Khawaja, submitted that police would also offer training to security staff of hospitals to tackle such a situation.

The Attorney-General of Pakistan, Ashtar Ali Ausaf, submitted that the issue of cellular phones locators had been resolved and locators would be provided to the Sindh Police in the next two to three months.

He said that an understanding between the concerned law-enforcement agencies on provision of facilities of geo-fencing had been reached, and it was decided that the Ministry of Interior would be given 10 days to draw up a new set of standards of procedure.

The court granted the review application of the Sindh Police that had requested the Supreme Court to allow it to maintain and operate the existing infrastructure of closed-circuit cameras installed in the city until a new CCTV surveillance system was launched by the provincial government.

The Sindh Police had submitted in the application that maintenance of CCTV cameras included associated network, data centers, command and control rooms besides the CCTV cameras, and if such an infrastructure was not maintained on the presumption that it would be replaced by a new CCTV surveillance system, which might take more than nine months, the existing infrastructure would collapse.

The chief secretary informed the court that the competent authority had approved funds amounting to Rs10 billion for establishment of a new and highly upgraded CCTV and surveillance system with infrastructure and human resources, and this amount would be released in phases including the current financial year 2016-17 as per requirement.

The court observed that funds allocated for installation of CCTV should be effectively used for installation of the CCTV surveillance system.

The chief secretary also submitted a report in compliance with court directions which was taken on record, and the same would be considered on the next date of hearing.

The court observed that so far as other dimensions of these proceedings are concerned, it is expected that the quarters concerned at their own initiatives will ensure implementation of directions contained in the Karachi law and order suo moto judgment.

The attorney-general apprised the court of the steps taken by the federal government to make sure that all the possible facilities were provided to the Sindh government to improve the working of the police department and to equip them with the latest technology.

The court observed that it is expected that a positive role will be played by the federal agencies in this regard with the fullest cooperation of the Sindh government.

The AGP also requested time to submit a report regarding four officers against whom the court had earlier ordered an inquiry for negligence in Chief Justice of Sindh High Court’s son, Owais Ali Shah’s kidnapping case.

The court granted the request and adjourned the hearing of the case after the vacation of the court.