Chief Justice Of Pakistan Chairs Police Reforms Committee Meeting

A meeting of the Police Reforms Committee (PRC) was held on Monday under chairmanship of Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) in the Supreme Court of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Sep, 2019 ) :A meeting of the Police Reforms Committee (PRC) was held on Monday under chairmanship of Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The meeting was attended by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Senior Puisne Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan,serving IGPs from all four provinces, ICT, GB, AJ&K and former Inspector Generals of Police Afzal Ali Shigri, (Convener), Asad Jahangir Khan, Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Tariq Khosa, and designated Director General of National Police Bureau, said a press release issued by the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan.

The committee discussed the agenda items i.e. Public Complaints redressal mechanism; Measures taken to improve quality of Investigation and result thereof; and Enhancing the effectiveness of Criminal Justice System dealing with ATA cases.

The chief justice in his opening remarks welcomed the participants and appreciated the successful work done by the police while acting upon the directions of PRC.

He opened the meeting for members of PRC for presentation of their input in accordance with the agenda items.

Dr. Muhammad Raheem Awan, Secretary LJCP gave an overview of the agenda of the meeting. He informed that in Public Complaint Redressal Centers 24387 complaints were pending on 01-01-2019, 77451 complaints were instituted and 95041 complaints were disposed of from 01.01.2019 to 15-9-2019 and also gave figures of actions taken against delinquent Police Officers/Staff by imposing 144 major and 479 minor Penalties during this period.

He further briefed that 20796 complaints regarding non-registration of FIR were filed, out of which 19123 were disposed of while 2593 are still pending. While apprising the performance of the complaint cells he gave the comparative statement of writ petitions and petitions U/S 22A and 22B Cr.PC for this year i.e. January to 15th September 2019 with the preceding year i.e. 2018 for the same period which revealed that 14733 writ petitions were instituted in the High Courts in the year 2018 while from 01-01-2019 to 15-9-2019, 12187 writ petitions were instituted in the High Courts. This reflects that 17.3% work load in filing of writ petitions has been reduced from the High Courts due to the effective performance of Public Complaints Redressal Centers. He has also placed the statistics of the district judiciary that during 01-01-2018 to 15-9-2018, 186567 petitions under section 22A and 22B were instituted while 124330 petitions were instituted during 01-01-2019 to 15-9-2019, showing the reduction of 33.4% of work load of filing of petitions U/S 22A and 22B Cr.PC, in the district judiciary.

Thereafter, the Chief Justice/Chairman LJCP offered the IGPs to present their performances.

Capt: (Rtd) Arif Nawaz Khan, Inspector General of Police (Punjab) informed the PRC about performance of the Police Complaint Redressal Centers since inception till date and other details including actions taken against the delinquent police officers.

He also presented before the Committee about the establishment and working of District Assessment Committees (DACs).

He shared the data of DACs showing analysis of acquittal in murder cases from 01-01-2019 till 31-07-2019, revealing that there is 31% conviction and 69% acquittal rate in 2586 total decided cases in Punjab.

Whereupon the Chairman showed his concern over alarming rate of acquittal in Murder cases due to different flaws in investigation.

All IGPs informed that the DACs have been established across the county at district level having the composition: (i) A retired District and Sessions Judge having significant expertise in criminal cases (ii) An SP Investigation (iii) An investigating Officer (iv) A prosecutor (v) A Senior Lawyer having experience in Criminal Cases and a young Lawyer.

They said that the mandate assigned to DACs is to evaluate the judgements passed in the murder cases and review cases of acquittal and bail. The DACs are effectively working for improving the quality of investigations.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman LJCP, showed his full confidence and satisfaction on the working of complaint redressal centers and DACs.

He added that with the efforts of the member of the PRC first two steps i.e. complaint redressal mechanism and establishment of DACs to review the cases of acquittal and bails for improving the quality of investigation, have been successfully accomplished.

The public has shown their confidence and trust on the working of police complaint cells, he added. He said that this has reduced the unnecessary burden of thousands of cases on judiciary.

Besides, the general public remain as beneficiary of these complaint cells as relief has been extended to them being speedy and without additional monetary burden which is their fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan, he added.

Justice Gulzar emphasized upon need of confidence building of public at large upon police and said that police need to play its role for improvement in law and order situation in the country specially in the rural areas.

He asserted that majority of the population of the country is residing in the rural areas and there is likelihood of exertion of pressure techniques upon police by the local influential persons in such situation role of the police becomes more important in finding the truth from false and motivated criminal cases.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, while giving the future plan of working of PRC, emphasized upon need of role of National Police Bureau to devise a uniform strategy across the country regarding correct narration of FIR, un-necessary arrest, and false evidence so that misuse and abuse of process of registration of criminal cases and department of police could be discouraged.

It was unanimously decided that the Committee will consider these important issues as a next step for successfully achieving the goal of Police Reforms in the Country, in the meantime National Police Bureau with consultation of all the inspector generals of Police will prepare a proposal on aforementioned issues and will share with the committee.