CJP says police must be free from pressures

KARACHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa calling for making police truly independent and cited the independence of police as important as that of judiciary which could otherwise undermine justice system.

Addressing a session on Justice Sector Reform held at Central Police Office here on Friday, largely attended by serving and some retired police officers from across the country he said, in context of criminal justice system police and judiciary are inseparable. “We are conjoined twins and cannot work without each other,” commented the CJP.

Reemphasizing his point the CJP said reforms being introduced by the judiciary are also closely linked to police reforms initiated by his predecessor Chief Justice (R) Mian Saqib Nisar who had constituted a Police Reform Committee. He said the top most objective is to improve police image through establishment of Public Complaint Committees in each of the 116 districts of the country, headed by Superintendents of Police to address grievances. “During past few month 71,452 complaints were registered and 57,000 were redressed to the satisfaction of the complainant,” said Chief Justice Khosa.

Consequently, the load on lower courts has reduced by 11% as complainants did not find any reason to approach the courts as their complaints were duly addressed while a 20% decline was registered in the load on high courts as majority of public grievances were against the police. The CHP said it is not only that public are able to get their grievances efficiently settled but their confidence on police has significantly improved, reiterated CJP Khosa. Since the major criticism of the police department is with weak investigation leading to acquittal or release on bail of the accused by the courts, assessment committees are said to be constituted for each the case.

Justice Khosa said each of the committees comprising a retired session judge and young lawyers are assigned to identify defects in the investigation duly conveyed to the investigation officers. Mentioning that false testimony is a major challenge for the justice system so efforts are being made to curtail the practice.

Justice Khosa said it is the responsibility of the police to establish the case through genuine witnesses and truthful testimony. The CJP emphasised that those offering false testimony and evidence must be considered equal partner in crime. He said a recent strong judgment to prevent false statements before the court is a major step with equal attention to curtail extensive dependence of the police investigators on the witnesses. Efforts are said to be required to ensure the formers’ capacity building with updated techniques of investigation through laboratory of forensic sciences functional in Lahore, considered among the best across the world. Emphasizing that bulk of public complaints are related to criminal cases so as per Supreme Court of Pakistan orders no adjournment is being allowed while the role over system is also been streamlined to facilitate judge to hear the cases on regular basis.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan also referred to Model Criminal Courts functional in 116 districts of the country and which during their first 86 working days were able to handle 9,767 cases related to murder and narcotics trial. “The good news is that in 12 of the districts in the country there is zero pending of murder cases which is absolutely phenomenal as we have just fine tuned the same system,” he said.

As for Model Civil Appellant Courts made functional on July 15 this year, they are have decided hundreds of cases in just four days’’ time with no single complaint by lawyers about law or legal procedure being violated or decision been given in haste. Two other special courts for gender based violence and child protection are also being established in each district of the country to address the issues that could not simply be ignored and culprits allowed to go scot free.

Reiterating that focus on speedy trial, the CJP said special benches of revenue court have also been set up which was claimed to have helped recovery of Rs43 crores. About e-Court system, he said it is for the first time in the judicial history of Pakistan that cases in the Supreme Court are heard through video-link connectivity. The e-Court system with its principal seat Islamabad connected to its registry in Karachi as well as Quetta are said to be cause of great relief to the litigants and lawyers.

The session was also addressed by former IG of Sindh Police and Convener of Police Reforms Committee, Afzal Ali Shigri, Secretary of the committee, Dr. Raheem Awan and Inspector General of Police -Sindh, Dr Kaleem Imam. A tribute was also paid to the martyrs and ghazis of the Pakistan Police Force.

The family members of the cops having lost their lives in the line of duty were specially invited to the event along with several other dignitaries.