A crippled justice system
Once again the justice system is revealed as deeply flawed

PHOTO: EXPRESS
The case had done the judicial rounds. The alleged crime happened in 2003, and came to trial in 2005. The Lahore High Court upheld the verdict and dismissed the convicts’ appeals in June 2010. The Supreme Court granted leave of appeal in 2011 and yet it was not until October 2016 that matters approached a conclusion. The apex court eventually took up the case on 25th January 2017. The three surviving men now stand acquitted. The apex court granted them the benefit of the doubt by virtue of the evidential flaws cited above. It is not for us to say if justice has or has not been done, but we can say with certainty that the process of justice is so flawed that men today acquitted could have gone to the gallows. There will be other flawed judgments in the system. Innocents may have been hanged. The people of Pakistan deserve better, and healing a crippled justice system has to be a priority for this and successive governments.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 11th, 2017.
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