DND Report
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while addressing lawyers in Quetta on Monday said that the judicial system could not serve justice to the victims of terrorism and there was a need to overhaul the judicial system.
His address in Quetta just a day after five more laborers from Punjab were martyred by terrorism in the Panjgor district of Balochistan, a province that has been facing the brunt of terrorism for the last two decades. In general, Pakistan has been facing terrorism for the past two decades. In this war, the security forces are fighting against TTP (officially called Fitana Al Kharaj), the Baloch Liberation Army, and other terrorist organizations. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari politely mentioned that the judicial system was serving the judiciary instead of serving the country. He also indicated that his party (PPP) is not in power in the center but even then he is trying for judicial reforms. He mentioned the universal reality that crimes (terrorism) cannot be controlled unless punishments are not ensured. This is the brutal reality that is being faced by law enforcement agencies in Pakistan who take their lives in danger during operations against terrorists but taking life risks is futile because terrorists get support from the legal system and the conviction rate is too low to be realistic. The sacrifices of the Pakistan Army, police, and security agencies in the war against terrorism are in front of everyone, which is clear proof that the Pakistan Army, police, and security agencies do not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for the defense of the homeland and the people. Innumerable small and large operations against terrorists have been conducted and are being conducted by the Pakistan Army and security forces.
In these operations, a large number of terrorists were killed and many were arrested. However, the sad fact is that the arrested terrorists get relief due to legal loopholes and the efforts of the Pakistan Army and security agencies go in vain. A known case in which one terrorist namely Hazrat Ali was arrested with explosives outside Manawan Police Training college that came under terrorist attack. Hazrat Ali got bail from a civilian court and he was killed in another suicide bombing after three years in a “Karachi pressure cooker suicide bombing”. When terrorists are presented in the anti-terrorism courts established across the country, as mentioned earlier, due to the legal loophole, these terrorists are released due to lack of evidence against them. Then they regroup, launch fresh waves of terrorist activities, harm the Pakistan Army, kill innocent people, and dance on their dead bodies.
Hundreds of terrorist cases are also pending in the courts and between years 2022-2023, there was a 121% increase in the pendency. A total of 6,550 terrorists had been challaned during 2020-2023. Of these, only 11 percent accused (774) were convicted and only 1.5 percent (104) of these convictions were upheld.
Now it is necessary to see why all this happens in counter-terrorism. The implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Act was done to reduce the burden of cases on the courts, the courts implemented the policy of zero inventory and each Anti-Terrorism Court was given one case at a time, but in 1999, this Act was amended. The reason for this was that after the amendment of the Act, the definition of terrorism was broadened and other crimes were also included in it, after which the cases lasted for months and even years. The prime example is Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar’s inappropriate case. Placing such kind of cases and adding clauses of terrorism in the First Information Report (FIR) is surely a concern for those who understand the nature of the crime of terrorism because such kind of act of the police surely compromised the very nature and the reputation of ATCs that have been installed to deal with not heinous rather crimes of terror nature. Pakistan is a country where terrorism is rising again and systems like ATCs are needed full-time to counter this menace while their involvement in cases such as Qamar surely hampers their reputation as well as operations. There are 23 courts in Punjab, 13 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 32 in Sindh, 9 in Balochistan, 10 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 2 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 2 in Islamabad. The data obtained by the relevant counter-terrorism departments indicates the pending cases of terrorism ratio is highest in Balochistan ie 34%, 32% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19% in Sindh, 8% in Punjab and 7% in Gilgit-Baltistan. If we talk about cases against terrorism, there are currently 605 pending cases across the country, including 48 in Punjab, 115 in Sindh, 195 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 208 in Balochistan, and 39 in Gilgit-Baltistan. If we talk about 217 cases between 2020 and 2023, sentences were given in 217 cases, including 152 in Punjab, 33 in Sindh, 14 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10 in Balochistan, 6 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 2 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
On the other hand, the acquittal ratio of people involved in terrorism is high, in which 278 terrorists were acquitted based on lack of evidence in various cases including 60 in Punjab, 28 in Sindh, 26 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 148 in Balochistan, 14 in Gilgit-Baltistan, and 2 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The question arises about the competency and professionalism of Advocate Generals of provinces who are responsible for leading their legal teams representing state institutions. Moreover, the working of law ministries should be reviewed which is responsible for looking after the quality of work of Advocate Generals.
Anti-terrorism courts also face delays in cases and cases are left pending. When the anti-terrorist courts are overwhelmed with cases, the terrorists will undoubtedly get the benefit of this, their cases will be suspended. In the anti-terrorist court, hard evidence is needed to get harsh punishments such as the death penalty for terrorists, and the evidences
Failure to provide evidence and delays in recording witnesses to courts by the state prosecutors always provide benefits to the accused (terrorists). Sometimes investigative teams become under life threats and they leave loopholes in the case with an announced arrangement with the accused (terrorists.
During the year 2020 to 2023, 1,650 cases were pending, 6, 550 terrorists were challenged, out of which 774 were convicted while 911 were acquitted, and 465 terrorists filed an acquittal appeal, of which 104 were upheld while 90 were quashed.
In summary, terrorism cases in Pakistan tend to be pending due to over-reliance on the number of witnesses, evidence, security concerns, intimidation, and obstruction. All these contribute to repeated acquittals in high-profile cases of terrorism and terrorist facilitation.
All these factors emphasize the importance of establishing military courts and hearing cases through them. The establishment of military courts was approved/implemented under the National Action Plan. The trial of terrorism cases through military courts is also necessary because the current judicial system seems to be failing to deliver verdicts against terrorists. If the judiciary system was as strong, effective, and admirable, visible justice would have been done against the terrorists caught in the past and they would have been punished, but this did not happen; Rather, it has been a common complaint of the people against the judiciary that terrorists and target killers are arrested but the courts release them.
Based on political affiliations in the judiciary, a “stay order” had been given by the Supreme Court on the military courts. There is no doubt that Pakistan is facing unusual circumstances concerning terrorism and it needs to take unusual actions but the 130-year-old Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc) that was passed on July 1, 1898, by British lawmakers is a great hindrance to serving the demands of 21st century that started with a wave of terrorism (9/11 incident). Practically the entire legal system has failed in Pakistan to serve the demands for curbing terrorism and the higher judiciary thinks only the human rights of the accused instead of thinking about the rights of families of victims like these innocent laborers who were killed recently in Panjgor. We cannot stop such incidents with the prevailing system while the system is not allowing unusual acts like military courts to deal with unusual circumstances Pakistan is facing today.
The foremost responsibility lies with the Federal Law Ministry and the Attorney General of Pakistan to raise the issue with the higher judiciary to decide the case of military courts and request the higher judiciary to look into the realities of the country instead of looking at the case through political opticals.
