Chief Justice Of Pakistan Reaffirms Importance Of Independent Police

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Mr. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa here on Friday cited independence of police as important as that of judiciary which otherwise could undermine justice system

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jul, 2019 ) :Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Mr. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa here on Friday cited independence of police as important as that of judiciary which otherwise could undermine justice system.

Addressing a session on Justice Sector Reform held at Central Police Office (CPO), largely attended by serving as well as some retired police officers from across the country he said, in particular context of criminal justice system police and judiciary were inseparable.

"We are conjoined twins and can not work without each other," commented the CJP.

Reemphasizing his point the CJP said reforms being introduced by the judiciary in the country are also closely linked to police reforms initiated by his predecessor Chief Justice (retd) Mian Saqib Nisar who had constituted a Police Reform Committee comprising senior police officers as well as some of the most competent judges from across the country.

Mentioning that since assuming the responsibility as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he decided to take up the agenda recommended by the committee on one at a time basis so as to make the exercise meaningful and lasting.

Top most was said to be objective to improve police image in the society through establishment of Public Complaint Committees in each of the 116 districts of the country, headed by Superintendents of Police, available to address grievance related to the department.

"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 were reduced by 11% as complainants did not find any reason to approach the courts as their gripe were duly addressed while 20% decline was registered in the load on high courts as majority of public grievances had to be against the police.

It was not only that public were able to get their grievances efficiently settled but their confidence on the institution of police itself has significantly improved, reiterated CJP Khosa.

Since a major criticism of the police department was with regard to weak investigation leading to acquittal or release on bail of the accused by the courts, assessment committees were said to be constituted for each of such case.

Each of the committees comprising a retired session judge as well as young lawyers with capacity to look into the issue were assigned to identify defects in the investigation which were duly conveyed to the concerned investigation officers.

Mentioning that false testimony is repeatedly registered to be a major challenge for the justice sector hence concerted efforts were said being made to curtail the practice and ease the burden on both the police and judiciary.

A recently announced strong judgement to prevent lies before the court was said to be a major step with equal attention to curtail extensive dependence of the police investigators on the witnesses.

Efforts were said to be required to ensure the formers' capacity building in context of updated techniques of investigation with due application of facilities available through laboratory of forensic sciences functional in Lahore, enumerated among the best across the world.

Emphasizing that bulk of public complaints are related to criminal cases hence as per Supreme Court of Pakistan orders no adjournment of these cases are being allowed while role over system is also been streamlined to facilitate judges able to hear the cases on regular basis.

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 9767 cases related to murder and narcotics trial.

"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 only, they were said to 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 were also said to be in process of being established in each district of the country to address the issues that could not simply be ignored and culprits allowed to go scott free.

Reiterating that focus is equally on speedy trial, CJP said special benches of revenue court have also bee set up which was claimed to have helped recovery of Rs.43 crore.

About E-Court system, he said that it was for the first time in judicial history of Pakistan that cases in the Supreme Court of Pakistan 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 was said to be cause of great relief to the litigants as well as the 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.

On the occasion great tribute were also paid to the martyrs as well as ghazis of the Pakistan Police Force. Family members of the cops having lost their lives in the line of duty were speciallyinvited to the event along with several other dignitaries.