Lahore, Pakistan: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge Arshad Javed of Lahore is hearing the alleged honey-trap case of playwright Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar whose alleged obscene porn kind of video is already spreading in social media.
The case is sub judice therefore, commenting on the case is inappropriate. 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 would surely compromise the very nature and the reputation of ATCs that have been installed to deal with not heinous rather crimes of terror nature.
The PTI is already playing huge campaigns to discredit ATCs’ reference to the May 9, 2023 Vandalism and accusing such courts in international media, putting honey trap cases under the same courts is obviously no service to them and would surely provide more material to elements like PTI that are discrediting the very nature of such courts. ATCs were brought out for justice with delay to deal with cases of terrorist nature under the Anti-Terrorism Act (1997) which is an extension of the Suppression of Terrorist Activities Act (1975). Since then, the Anti-terrorism mechanisms have thus been historically understood as means to suppress terrorism. In 1997, Nawaz Sharif’s government promulgated the Anti-Terrorism Act after years of communal and sectarian violence contributed to political instability. The act established special courts and gave the police wide-ranging powers to arrest and detain suspects. Since then, the Anti-Terrorism Act has been amended in 1998, three times in 1999, once in 2001, twice in 2002, and once in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2009. These amendments were usually to increase the range of crimes covered by the act. In addition to terrorist activities, the act covers arms trafficking, kidnapping, hijacking, extortion, sectarian violence, targeted political killings, and gang rapes.
The extension in the term of reference of listening cases of the above-mentioned subjects along with purely terrorism cases, the current backlog in ATCs nationwide has increased manifold, hampering the actual work that was expediting cases of pure terrorism nature and punishing the culprits. It is also known to legal circles that these courts are severely understaffed and lack basic resources. Legal circles believe that shortcomings in the state’s anti-terrorism mechanisms allow known militants and vandals like My 9, 2023 to go free without facing charges, and ATCs are overloaded due to adding clauses in FIR that send cases of normal nature to ATCs.
There are hundreds of related to the May 9, 2023 vandalism pending in ATCs and also of cases of top terrorists while ATCs are hearing cases of honey traps and spending time and resources to deal with whatever is being sent to them by the police.
Journalistic circles in Lahore claim that giant media houses were behind to managing Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar’s case for ATCs because his reputation was not only at stake but also the media houses who run his dramas/episodes. Whosoever is behind the move, this would surely compromise the reputation of the system that is responsible for dealing with terrorism because if ATCs continue to hear such cases, then soon it will be a mockery for critiques. 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 media hype cases would surely hamper their operations.
