A welcome verdict

Had the lynch mob and the policemen not been caught on video, is unlikely the case would have been brought to court.

Just over a year ago, there was hardly a person to be found who would have had faith in our judicial system’s ability to provide justice to the families of two brothers, 18-year-old Mughees and 16-year-old Muneeb Butt, who had been brutally lynched by a mob in Sialkot. However, the verdict in the case, delivered on September 20, should be welcomed because it at least punishes those involved in a heinous act, something that one hardly gets to see in Pakistan. Seven of those who took part in the lynch mob have been give death sentences, while another six have been given life terms. All the policemen who stood by idly, as the lynch mob went about its bloody business, have each been sentenced to three years in jail, including the officer in charge of the area. Given the lethargic pace at which Pakistani courts dispense justice, it is a relief that the anti-terrorism court was able to come to a verdict in a year. That said, it should provide the family some sense of closure since justice was at least served in their case.

But not everything about the verdict was salutary. First, had the lynch mob and the uninterested policemen not been caught on video, it is unlikely that the case would ever have been brought to court. And even if it had, guilty verdicts would have been far from certain as the testimony of law-enforcement officials tends to get more weight in a courtroom and also because the police are known to make cases weak or strong as and when required to protect their own. It was perhaps relentless media pressure which created a massive public outpouring of anger and resentment that prevented the policemen involved from finding a way of escaping punishment.

Perhaps, the only thing that might have needed to be changed about the trial was that there was little need for it to be conducted in an anti-terrorism court. The regular courts need to treat all such cases and they should be able to conduct and conclude hearings within a reasonable period of time. Having special anti-terrorism courts, especially for such incidents, only ends up providing a kind of parallel justice system and that does not really help the mainstream judicial system of dispending justice.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd,  2011.