A few days back, Chaudhry Aslam khan, the SSP CID Karachi said in an interview with a private TV channel that unless the courts give legal authenticity to the evidence of the police officials particularly in cases of terrorism, the scourge of terrorism cannot be controlled. It is a common complaint that in most of the cases people from common public lack courage to appear before the court and record their evidence against any terrorist activity. They are frightened of the threats of grave consequences from the terrorists as a result of such evidences. Most of the people are of the view that they are at the mercy of the criminals when they come out of the court premises after giving their statement against such criminals. This is the reason that in the last ten or fifteen years we find countless accused criminals who were proved guilty by the police but without sufficient evidence the courts could not send them behind the bars. In such cases the police or other law-enforcing agencies are left with only one option; to pay back the criminals in the same coin though this option gives birth to another type of injustice. The situation is getting worse and worse with the passage of time and would never be controlled unless the law of evidence is modified. The war on terror has relentlessly shattered and scattered the whole of social fabric and structure in Pakistani society. Thousands of people have been deprived of their lives and the economic set-up is facing the brunt of unimaginable losses. A sense of insecurity, fear and uncertainty has engulfed the whole society. The law-enforcing agencies are the last ray of hope in this miserable and pathetic state of affairs. Though they are doing their best to clean up the mess spread by this so-called war on terror but in the name of legalities the perpetrators of terrorism are creating hindrances to their way. Whenever these agencies succeed in unveiling the horrid faces of the terrorists behind a terrorist activity and hand over the culprits to the police or any other responsible authority, the patrons of these culprits take full advantage of the loopholes in the judicial system of Pakistan where ‘evidence’ plays the most important role in settling the matter. The security agencies of Pakistan would never win this war against terrorists unless they are given special privilege particularly with reference to the ‘evidence’ in courts.
PROFESSOR ALI SUKHANVER,
Multan, March 10.