Protect the witness

Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Bill 2015 is a bill that must be passed as soon as possible

Pakistan has no shortage of laws but a desperate shortage of justice. Courts everywhere are clogged, cases are interminable, dragging on for years unnecessarily and there are doubts about the probity of all engaged in the justice process, from the police arresting officers upwards. Adding another layer of legislation to an already cluttered legal landscape may therefore appear to be creating an even greater surfeit of ill-enforced laws — but perhaps not so. The Senate has drafted eight new bills that are aimed at providing speedy and inexpensive justice to the common man and woman, with one of the new bills being of timely and crucial importance.

Many prosecutions fail because witnesses are intimidated by associates of the defendant, this being true of cases that are purely criminal as well as terrorism-related. The absence of any sort of legal protection for witnesses has rendered parts of the justice system little more than a very flawed fishing net. Although yet to be ratified by the lower house, we warmly endorse and support the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Bill 2015. If adopted, it will for the first time provide a framework within which witnesses may be protected at every stage of proceedings, and post to proceedings to be protected by programmes that closely mirror those in parts of the developed world. If a witness dies or is killed whilst under the protection of the law, their legal heirs will be entitled to compensation, their children to a free schooling. The categories of offences under which witnesses may find safety is very wide — treason, murder, rape, robbery, perjury and kidnapping, all of which are every-day crimes in Pakistan. Witnesses will be ‘anonymised’ in court, their identities hidden, voices altered. Video conferencing and other modern aids to evidence gathering and giving in open court will be enabled. A plethora of opportunities to correct some of the more glaring inadequacies lies before our legislators. Far too many criminals slip through the net for want of adequate witness protection, and far too many terrorists escape for the same reason. This is a bill that must be passed as soon as possible and we wish it well.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2016.

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