Administrative change: Terrorism courts empowered to decide remand, charge sheet

Top lawyers issue joint statement issued on threat to judge.


Express January 18, 2012

KARACHI: In an administrative change that could improve security for judges or ease the work load, Karachi’s three anti-terrorism courts are now going to directly decide initial handling of people arrested in terrorism cases.

They have been empowered to deal with remand, in which they decide whether the accused person can be held back for further questioning, and charge sheeting in which the law-enforcement agencies prepare a formal list of accusations against them.

So far this work was done by a judge of the Sindh High Court who was called the administrative judge for the three ATCs.

The Sindh home department had requested SHC Chief Justice Mushir Alam and the administrative judge, Justice Faisal Arab, to make this change.

Now the registrar of the special courts at the home department will inform all officers who run police stations or SHOs in Karachi to produce the people they arrest in cases registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act at their respective ATCs directly.

According to the high court’s letter, ATC I would entertain cases from the east zone, ATC II from the west zone and ATC III from the south zone (police zones).

The ATCs were, however, directed to submit a monthly statement of the total number of remands or challans to the administrative judge, which means that SHC would continue its supervisory role according to the orders of the Supreme Court.

Judges’ security

Amid these developments, it came to light, via a joint statement from the representatives of the bar and top lawyers, that a senior judge of the Sindh High Court was being threatened “because certain elements have taken objection to certain orders passed by him in terrorism cases”.

The joint statement was signed by some of the most prominent names in the fraternity: Rasheed A Razvi, a member of the Pakistan Bar Council, Muneer A Malik, the former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Mahmoodul Hassan, the president of the Karachi Bar Association.

Due to the nature of the situation, no one wanted to divulge any details, but Razvi did tell The Express Tribune that “a threat to a single judge is a threat to the entire judiciary”. He added that if judges were threatened then justice could not be delivered in such an environment.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2012.

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