Four months on, police fail to submit challans in May 9 cases

Prosecutors avoid to dispute court orders declaring terror provisions illegal

RAWALPINDI:

Despite the passage of more than four months [140 days], police have failed to submit challans in the special anti-terrorism court in cases about the May 9 riots, attacks on the army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) and intelligence agency office on Murree Road, burning of the 6th Road Metro Bus Station, arson and vandalism in the limits of six police stations.

After the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former premier Imran Khan by the paramilitary Rangers in Al-Qadir Trust corruption case from the Islamabad High Court premises, in an unprecedented show of vandalism, a large number of party activists vandalised public and state properties and even attacked the GHQ in Rawalpindi and Lahore’s Jinnah House, where the city’s corps commander was residing.

According to the law, the police are bound to submit the challan within 14 days of the registration of the First Information Report of an incident. Due to the delay in submitting the challans, the trial of the cases against the nominated suspects in these cases could not even begin.

Despite repeated court orders, the RA Bazar and Dhamiyal police could not submit the challans in the cases of attack on GHQ; New Town police failed to submit challan of attack on intelligence agency’s office in Shamsabad on Murree Road; Sadiqabad police remained unsuccessful in submitting challan of setting ablaze 6th Road Metro Station while Cantt, Waris Khan, City and Civil Lines police could not submit the challans of the cases pertaining to vandalism.

Due to the alleged incompetence of the police department, the official prosecutors and investigation teams of these cases have also failed to challenge the decision of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to declare Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act as illegal in these cases.

Sources said this may lead to the government facing technical difficulties in the trial of these cases in the special anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.

They said about 85 per cent of the accused in these cases were released on bail and as many as 38 suspects remained in the military’s custody. All women accused in these cases have been released.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2023.