Considering that terrorism happens to be one of the major problems of Pakistan, it is shocking to see the non-seriousness of our government in dealing with the issue. But then the government has hardly shown seriousness on any issue, apart from those of course that concern personal interests of its senior-most officials and on that basis, if I get shocked over any issue concerning interests of members of public, the fault is entirely mine.
My disappointment arose reading reports published in the newspapers about the meeting on implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 presided by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and attended by senior judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Tassadoq Hussain Jilani, Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and monitoring judges of provincial high courts Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik (Punjab) Justice Sajjad Ali Shah (Sindh), Justice Mian Fasih-ul-Mulk (Peshawar) and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail (Balochistan), Supreme Court Registrar, home secretaries, IGPs, additional IGPs, secretaries prosecution and prosecutors general of all provinces and IG Islamabad. In short all the higher-ups concerned with law and order situation in the country were there but none of them had anything reassuring to report and all around, it was a dismal picture, though not entirely due to their fault in many cases.
The main weaknesses in the system were identified as:
Lack of protection of judges, counsels, public prosecutors, witnesses and people concerned with court proceedings. According to a report, six witnesses were murdered one after the other in Sindh which clearly shows the gravity of the matter.
Defective and dishonest investigation and weaknesses in prosecution which result in large number of acquittals. This necessitates appointment of policemen in sufficient numbers and on merit, their careful scrutiny and monitoring as well as their proper training, along with provision of requisite equipment, including forensic laboratories.
The IGPs listed their problems as defects in registration of cases, non-availability of eye witnesses, lack of clarity in the description of accused and their role, not recording of material evidence, delay in FIR registration, defects in investigation, defects in identification parade, etc.
Among other problems was shortage of judges which caused a backlog in cases and this becomes quite obvious glancing at the following table:
Punjab – Cases decided 1,344 – Cases pending 437 – No. of Courts 14
Sindh – Cases decided 459 – Cases pending 1405 – No. of Courts 11
KP – Cases decided 1,409 – Cases pending 201 – No. of Courts 13
Balochistan – Cases decided 289 – Cases pending 216 – No. of Courts 6
The table clearly shows a highly unsatisfactory situation in Sindh but I don’t suppose Sindh Provincial Government is too bothered, and claims that the law and order situation is under control.
In Quetta, we just heard of another massive blast involving up to 1000 kg of explosive material, against the Hazara community, causing the death of 80 persons with another 150 injured, some of them seriously. After the last massive blast, governor’s rule was imposed on the province but obviously that has failed to resolve the problem.
Considering serious law and order situation in three of the country’s provinces, and the flaws in the system detailed above, there is a need to tackle the problem through a properly worked out policy dealing with all aspects, and the matter cannot be solved throuh piece-meal, half-hearted measures.
In November last year, the federal cabinet approved the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NCTA) Bill with the aim to establish a counter-terrorism body which would devise policies and improve coordination among provincial governments and intelligence agencies in order to defeat al-Qaeda and Taliban-related terrorism. The proposed authority, with its headquarter in Islamabad and offices in other cities, will comprise prime minister as its chairman and interior minister as his deputy and an executive committee comprising secretaries of different government departments to ensure implementation of board decisions. Other members of the 28-member authority will include chief ministers of the four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir prime minister, federal ministers for defence, information, finance, foreign affairs, inter-provincial coordination and law and justice, heads of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and FIA, and interior secretary.
Even though NCTA is supposed to be al-Qaeda and Taliban-specific, I think it would be advisable if its scope could be expanded to include liaison with the law-enforcement agencies in the provinces as well, which have been unable to cope with the law and order situation on their own. Considering the dimensions that the menace has acquired, it needs to be dealt with on national level anyway; Also, some of the points mentioned in the meeting headed by the Chief Justice would require legislation which can be enacted only by the parliament.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Lahore Times.