Inclusion of Hudood sections in FIRs: FSC orders training for SHOs, IOs

LAHORE: A directive has been issued by the Punjab Police, on the orders of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), for imparting training to all station house officers (SHOs) and investigation officers (IOs) for registration of cases under the Hudood Ordinance.

According to a document, a copy of which is available with the reporter, the FSC registrar issued a directive to the prosecutor general for Punjab and the inspector general of police (IGP), saying that it had become in the observation of the FSC chief justice that the sections related Hudood Ordinance were not being made part of the FIRs [first information reports] even in the Hudood cases. The directive noted that even Hudood sections were not added to the FIRs by the police stations in even those cases which were purely related to women and child assault issues.

The FSC said that the trial courts had to face lots of difficulties in framingcriminal charges against the accused due to non-inclusion of the Hudood sections in the FIRs. The FSC chief justice directed the police authorities to impart training to all SHOs and IOs so that at the time of registration of Hudood cases, inclusion of Hudood sections in the FIRs could be ensured. The prosecutor general and the IGP have been directed to submit a compliance report to the FSC after implementation of the directive.

On the FSC directive, the Punjab prosecutor general has directed the district prosecutors general to contact the district police officers and the superintendents of police (SPs) investigation to help make a plan for imparting of training to all the SHOs and the investigation officers on the issue of inclusion of Hudood sections in the relevant cases.