Security issues: LHC seeks police update on court attacks

Chief justice tells prosecution, police to improve coordination.

LAHORE:

A special division bench of the Lahore High Court has sought a report from the police by October 18 about the prospects for the arrest of the accused in 118 cases of firing and other criminal violence at courts across the province.

The bench also ordered the installation of CCTV cameras in all subordinate courts. The LHC chief justice, who heads the bench, observed that if the courts remained easy targets for terrorists, no one would approach them for justice.

Additional Inspector General Amlesh Khan filed a report stating that the police were finalising a plan to improve security at the courts. He added that 1,000 policemen would be recruited for deployment at the courts.



The chief justice asked the Prosecution Department and the police to coordinate better. The prosecutor general complained that the police did not share information about investigations with prosecutors. He said that the Punjab Police IG had been sent a draft of standard operating procedures for information-sharing with the Prosecution Department, but the IG had sent the draft back with changes which would make the department’s job harder.

The chief justice remarked that better coordination between the police and prosecutors would speed up the dispensation of justice and restore public confidence in the courts.

He directed the police to include court security in its monthly agenda and report to the LHC on a regular basis.

Advocate Kashif Pasha, representing the petitioner, has voiced concern about recent violent incidents at courts across the country, saying they have created a sense of terror among litigants, lawyers and judges.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2013.