False witness producing IO to be deemed abettor: CJP Asif Saeed Khosa

LAHORE: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed on Saturday if an Investigation Officer (IO) produces false witnesses in any case, he would also be held equally responsible for the crime.

He said this while addressing police officers during his visit to Central Police Office, here on Saturday. He said the role of investigation officers is instrumental in provision of justice and it is their official responsibility to submit the challans in courts within given time limit, according to the law. He said that false witness should not be made part of any record, as it had been a practice for the last 70 years since 1951, and it should be discouraged at all levels. He said the court had clearly directed that false witness or his or her account should not be accepted at all. Actions have been taken against 15 false witnesses until now, Khosa said. He said if a true witness is weak and does not have the courage to present himself in the court, it was considered good that a false witness should be allowed to appear before the court, which is strictly prohibited by our religion.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said they are not supposed to only give decisions to provide justice, but to do justice in accordance with the law. Perjury is in itself a crime; therefore, it could not be permitted to commit 10 crimes in order to prove one crime, the CJP said adding the object of the investigation officer is only to find the ground realities and facts of the case and he is not supposed to take the plaintiff's statement to prove the FIR true. He said the main objective of investigation officer is to conduct an in-depth fact finding of the case and to keep the court aware of the true facts. The CJP said the SPs of complaint cells have been appointed in every district to reduce the cases in courts and immediately register an FIR which has shown positive results considerably.

The SP complaints have heard complaints of 120,000 citizens, upon which actions were taken and 95 percent complainants were satisfied before the registration of FIRs, which reduced the work load on courts. Due to this 15 percent reduction in writ petitions for recording FIRs in high courts and 30 percent reduction in district courts was observed, which is appreciable and the Police Department deserves praise for this.

The chief justice suggested the Police Department must not be influenced by any external pressure irrespective from the president, prime minister, chief ministers or anyone else. He said the police should deal with illegal activity within the department itself while it should refer the case of external interference to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The CJP said in case of any pressure for posting or transfer of department employees by political people, a case of misconduct, according to the civil service laws, must be initiated. And if the individual exerting the influencing is a government officer, his/her case must be sent to NAB with evidence. Justice Khosa explained that independent judiciary is as important as an independent police and such institutions should be totally free to control crimes.

The CJ said he is not convinced of judicial activism because, in any case, the administration and the respective officers not only get activated but also take quick actions as proceedings are started by other officers, along with the chiefs of the institutions. In such situations, there is no need to take suo moto action, as it affects the proceedings and actions of the institutions. He said “Ever since I became the CJ, whenever anything happened in the country which invited public notice at large scale, there was an outcry that the CJ should take suo moto notice. “I realised that because of activism of some of my very respectable seniors, the departments themselves were on toes already. Whenever an incident takes place, immediately all officials reached the spot, respond to the situation and take the matter into their hands. And this is what the court is expected to do. Even if a notice had been taken by the court for activating the departments and officials, the real work was to be done by those officials themselves. So if the officials are already doing their jobs efficiently, there was no need for the court to jump in.

There were times when incidents would take place in the evening and a notice was taken by the court by the same night and in the morning all these senior officers would be running to Islamabad to appear before the Supreme Court rather than going to the place of occurrence and attending to the situation. “Therefore, I thought it was not correct and if officials are not responding, if the situation is not being tackled, then somebody has to nudge them, somebody has to activate them. “Yes, in such a situation, it could be justified that the court intervenes. But now whenever any incident occurs, all senior officers everywhere in every relevant department, become active even in matters relating to the police. “The IGs, DIGs and everybody becomes active. The political administration and the executive also intervene and they also turn active so there is hardly any need for the Supreme Court to jump in at a premature stage, particularly when the SC is the court of last resort. “How can it afford to become the court of the first resort or institution of the first resort? Now something has to ripen up, something has to reach a mature stage followed by an investigation, a trial and an appeal and only at the end the case must come to the SC. “And if we intervene on day one, then the whole process of justice will be retarded, that will be reversed, and that does not serve the interest of justice.

“I have seen and handled some cases in which many years ago some notices were taken against certain incidents. The SC declared them to be a case of terrorism or directed registering an FIR or convening a trial.” Later on, it transpired that it was merely a case of private enmity or a private grievance.

Giving attention to another core issue, the CJ said his first priority when he became the chief justice was to restore the dignity of all those who appear before courts, not only the litigants but also the officers of different departments and particularly those of the Police Department.

“As a judge of the high court and then as a judge of the Supreme Court, I had personally witnessed some incidents in which officials coming to the courts were not given respect. I am not blaming anybody, but this was a prevalent practice that somehow the officials appearing before the courts were not treated with the dignity they deserved.” Sometimes, the situation appeared absolutely unbearable and, hats off to members of the police, who never responded negatively. They just lived with it and kept on showing respect and dignity to the court. “So, my first priority was that we should ensure that the court works as a court and anybody appearing before them court, particularly members of a disciplined force, should be afforded with dignity and respect. “Whatever be the nature of the case, whatever be the circumstances of a case, the dignity, which is a fundamental right under articles of the constitution, cannot be violated. The constitution says dignity of man is inevitable,” added the chief justice.

“And I am going to share something with you which, so far, nobody knows, except the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) that one very senior judge of the high court was proceeded by the SJC only on the allegation that he had humiliated and insulted a police officer during the court proceedings,” the CJ told the audience. “So that was the message that we sent straightaway that everybody is entitled to dignity and whatever be his calling or whatever be his job, once he appears before the court, he is to be accorded due respect and treated with dignity. “That we have already achieved to a greater extent, and the incidents of officers being treated rashly or not properly have been reduced to a great extent and we are still looking into it that no such incident takes place at all not just for police officers but with anybody who appears in a court of law or anywhere else.”

The chief justice said 77,000 trials have so far been conducted and concluded by the model courts in murder, narcotics and magisterial trials and almost a billion rupees fine was already imposed on all those convicted and when this will be realised, “I am sure that it will be a humble contribution to the beleaguered economy of the country”.

The CJ further said that the district assessment committees, formed by the order of the judiciary, were examining cases in which the accused were either granted bail or acquitted to get their recommendations to identify the flaws in investigation system due to which the accused get bailed out and released and these recommendations will also be shared with investigation officers so they do not repeat those mistakes. These recommendations will not only benefit the investigation system and investigation officers who will overcome their flaws and the criminals will not roam free from the punishment, consequently lowering the crime ratio considerably.

Justice Khosa said it gives him immense pleasure that the model courts proved very helpful in trials of murder and narcotics cases, especially focal persons deputed by the Police Department played a pivotal role in speedy trials by producing the witnesses in courts on time for this cooperation, all the IGs and Police Department deserve appreciation. These courts tried 24,523 cases in 189 days and this is relieving for the judiciary that not a single murder case is pending in many districts of Pakistan. He said that it was also observed that due to the delay in the cheque dishonour cases, citizens had to suffer a lot, judiciary took this matter on priority and after trials so far an amount of around one billion rupees had been returned to the actual owners, which is very encouraging. When an accused person would know that his case would not take long in the court, then he would think twice before committing a crime and this will also decrease the crime rate.

Earlier, Chief Justice of Pakistan and Chairman Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) Justice Asif Saeed Khosa expressed his satisfaction over the working of complaint redress centres and District Assessment Centres (DACs). He expressed these views while chairing a meeting of the Police Reforms Committee (PRC), held at the Supreme Lahore Registry. He said with the efforts of member of the PRC, first two steps i.e. complaint redress, mechanism and establishment of DACs to review the cases of acquittal and bails for improving the quality of investigation, have successfully been accomplished.

The CJP said the conviction of real culprits was an effective deterrence for reduction in crime rate and it would create peace in society on the one hand and discourage criminals on the other hand. He said according to spirit of the Constitution, no innocent person should be arrested, so the freedom of liberty, as enshrined in the Constitution, could never be abridged. He said a message also needs to be conveyed to those witnesses giving false evidence in courts that innocent persons could not be put behind the bars on the basis of their false evidence and they would face the consequences of perjury and courts would never tolerate this.

The LJCP Secretary Dr Muhammad Raheem Awan informed the meeting that 119,423 complaints were disposed of by the Public Complaint Redress Centres from January to November this year. He said 157 major and 698 minor penalties were imposed on negligent police officers during this period and 29,452 complaints regarding non-registration of FIR were submitted to the PCRCs, out of which 28,070 were disposed of while 2,302 were still pending. He said effective working of PCRCs has reduced 15 per cent workload on 22-A & 22-B petitions on the high courts. Dr Raheem Awan also placed the statistics showing the reduction of 30 per cent of workload of filing of petitions under sections 22A and 22B CrPC in the district judiciary.

The Inspector General of Police Punjab, Capt (retd) Arif Nawaz Khan, informed the PRC about performance of the PCRC and apprised that 331 complaints regarding arrest of innocent persons were received, out of which 320 decided and 11 were pending. He said 383 complaints regarding cancellation of FIR were received out of which 362 decided and 21 were pending, 175 complaints regarding corruption were pending out of which 173 decided and 2 were pending. He stressed that police would not leave any stone unturned to make police public friendly. The CJP hoped that Punjab Police would continue its efforts for improvement of the Police Department. All the serving IGPs presented assessments and performance reports of District Assessment Committees (DACs), demonstrating the reasons for acquittal provided after reviewing the criminal cases of acquittal.

The CJP-designate Justice Gulzar Ahmed said it is vital for the police and investigators to be well aware of the latest verdicts of the Supreme Court so the investigation might be conducted as per guidelines given by the apex court. He directed that access of research work of LJCP and Supreme Court Research Cell be given to the Police Department on which judgments of the Supreme Court would be available in different languages enabling police officials to understand the verdicts of the Supreme Court in its true spirit.

The Secretary LJCP assured the CJP that the Commission would prepare a separate Bench Book training of judges, lawyers, prosecutors and investigation officers (IOs) in the light of assessment made by the DACs making them aware of verdicts of the apex court regarding reasoning of acquittal and bails. It will play a vital role in criminal justice system of the country.

With reference to the last meeting of the PRC, it was resolved that NPB would prepare and devise a uniform strategy across the country regarding correct and brief narration of FIR, address the issues of un-necessary arrest and false evidence. Dr Ijaz Hussain Shah briefed the committee and explained that after consultation with all police departments, certain guidelines have been compiled and issued for strict compliance under supervision of the senior police officers that includes simplified narration of FIR for making the investigation procedure transparent and ensuring that no arrest takes place before proper investigation was conducted and sufficient evidence was available on record.

The chief justice was warmly and respectfully received at the Central Police Office earlier. He was briefed by various police officers about different sections and departments. Afterwards, the CJ addressed police officers.

The IG Punjab Capt (retd) Arif Nawaz Khan thanked the chief justice for his visit to the CPO. At the end of the event, IGP Punjab presented a souvenir to Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, senior judge of Supreme Court Justice Gulzar Ahmed and convener Police Reforms Committee Afzal Ali Shigri.