CJ constitutes Police Reforms Committee to examine relevant laws, suggest recommendations

Islamabad: With a view to address the deficiencies in the current criminal justice system in the country specially in the context of police laws, the Chief Justice of Pakistan constituted a Police Reforms Committee with mandate to examine the relevant laws and to suggest recommendations therein. The Committee in its meeting held on 7-1-2019 had decided that the police reforms may be prioritized for implementation and in this context the complaint redressal mechanism and police investigation may be  taken up firstly. A meeting of the Committee was held today under the chairmanship of the Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan in the Supreme Court of Pakistan which was attended by Amjad Javed Saleemi, IGP Punjab, Dr. Naeem Khan, IGP KPK, Dr. S.K. Imam, IGP Sindh, Mohsin A. Butt, IGP Balochistan, Amir Zulifiqar Khan, IGP ICT, Salahauddin Khan, IGP AJK, Sana Ullah Abbasi, IGP Gilgit Baltistan, Tariq Khosa, Former IGP, Mr. ShoukatJaved, Former IGP, Mr. Tariq Parvez, Former IGP, Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Former IGP, Syed Masud Shah, Former IGP and Mr. Afzal Ali Shigri, Former IGP to discuss on the following agenda items i.e. Implementation of public complaints redressal mechanism; measures to improve quality of investigation; and criminal justice reforms as envisaged by the Chief Justice of Pakistan. Dr Mohammed Raheem Awan, Secretary LJCP welcomed the participants and gave a brief background of the working of Police Reforms Committee and agenda of the meeting. The Chief Justice of Pakistan in his opening remarks highlighted the fact that despite launching of the Police Reforms Committee Report, the key stakeholders of the criminal justice system and the general public are not still aware of the contents of the same. He directed that the Secretariat of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan should convene a meeting of the relevant stakeholders of the criminal justice system who would be briefed about the contents and purposes of the Police Reforms Committee report. The Inspector General of Police Punjab informed that the complaints redressal mechanism has already been operationalized after the direction of the Steering Committee on Police Reforms dated 29 October 2018. Whereby the complaints are being received through email, post, by hand, through dedicated phone numbers and other means of communication for convenience and to facilitate the general public for speedy and expeditious redressal of grievances, being faced by them.  The Inspector General of Police Punjab informed that around 163 complaints are being received per day to the fulltime designated police officers. He further stated that total of 11436 complaints were received for the period from 1st December 2018 to 8 February 2019 and 7382 complaints have been disposed of while 4054 are under process. The Inspector General of Police Sindh informed that 21,218 complaints were pending on 31st December 2018 and the number of complaints received in January 2019, was 2324. He further stated that the total pendency was 23542. He further stated that 17313 complaints were disposed of in January 2019 and the pendency as on 1st February 2019 was  6229.  The Inspector General of Police KPK informed that during January 2019 a total number of 1573 complaints were received.  He further stated that 1037 complaints have been disposed of till 31 January 2019 while 536 are  pending. The Inspector General of Police Balochistan informed that so far 117 complaints have been received. He further stated that 72 have been disposed of and 45 are under process.  The Inspector General of Police ICT informed that for the period 1st November 2018 till date a total of 3845 complaints have been received. He further stated that 3283 complaints have been redressed while 250 are in process. The Inspector General of Police Gilgit Baltistan informed that 15 complaints have been received and 10 have been resolved while 5 are pending. After these presentations the Committee deliberated that such complaints redressal mechanism will provide speedy and expeditious redressal to the complaints of the general public at their own doorstep and would also decrease the burden/backlog of the courts of law in the shape of 22-A and 22-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 and writ petitions of similar nature. The Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan pointed out that the grey areas of the investigations and emphasized upon investigating agencies to chalk out such mechanism of investigation that not only the culprits of the offence are pointed out but they be convicted under the relevant provisions of law by providing the truthful evidence and the apprehension of false evidence be totally eliminated.  The Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan emphasized that training of the Investigation Officers and Prosecutors should be carried out in the Judicial Academies across the country to improve their professional standards and Secretary LJCP stated that the Secretariat of the LJCP can engage with the Federal and Provincial Judicial Academies in arranging modules/courses for improvement of the professional standards of the investigation. The Committee resolved that in its next meeting measures to improve the quality of investigation will be deliberated upon.