Crumbling away: Speed still sells, but narco courts too slow to cope

With no water, no lockups and a single judge to sift through over 70 cases a day, the CNS courts struggle to deliver.

KARACHI:

A six-foot wall surrounds the unfashionable structure of the old Municipal Training Research Institute (MTRI) building, which now houses the Control for Narcotics Substances courts. The average person need only stand on tip-toes to be able to see over the wall into the courtyard of the building where the ‘silent killers’, ranging from petty drug-peddlers to the dreaded drug barons, are brought in droves to face the law.

Inside the building, the dimly lit constricted corridors lead to a single 10x10 foot make-shift court room. In the room sits a single judge, burdened by the load of over 70 cases on an average day. No canteen, no water, no lockup, no Maalkhana, no bar room and not even a toilet for the prisoners. Such is the condition of the court that the staff, lawyers, police officials and litigants find it an uphill task just to make it to work each day.



“These are very basic issues that need to be addressed immediately,” demanded the prosecutor for the CNS courts, Raheeluddin. “Imagine how we work in the congested building - that too in the absence of a judicial lockup, a Malkhana, a canteen, a bar room or any other basic amenities. Even the general corridor can barely fit two men crossing each other at the same time!”

The CNS courts were established for the quick disposal of narcotics cases after the promulgation of the Control of Narcotic Substances Act, 1997. The purpose, however, hangs in the balance as 1,073 cases were pending before the CNS-II court as of October 2013. To add insult to injury, the CNS court-I has been lying vacant since the last two to three months.

Court sources are of the opinion that the cases will keep piling up unless a few more courts are established in the city. The courts are over burdened which has resulted in quite a few cases being overlooked, said Raheeluddin. “Lawyers are also reluctant to take up cases of the CNS courts because of all these issues.”



Before the CNS courts were established, all narcotics cases were tried by the district and sessions courts. Now, however, any case where the quantity of the seized narcotics exceeds 100 grammes is tried at the CNS courts. The move was deemed important at the time as the cases were decided after startling delays due to the sheer number of pending criminal cases in these courts.

Malkhana

In the absence of a Malkhana at the court, the officials of Customs, police, Excise, anti-narcotic force and the coast guards department have to take the case properties, mostly in the from of seized narcotic substances, back to their respective Malkhanas after producing them in courts during trials. The situation has resulted in some officials misusing the case properties as well as foisting the same upon other suspects in other cases.

Previously, the building was used by the MTRI to train the councillors, explained the assistant private secretary of the CNS court-II, Muhammad Iqbal Ansari.  He added that the rooms were so small that two rooms were merged into one to make a 10x10 court room - which hardly accommodates all the litigants of a single case. “Although, there is a water cooler, it lies empty most of the time,” he said.

No lockup, no washroom

In the absence of a judicial lockup and a washroom, the prisoners are seated in the open area inside the court premises which they also use as a make-shift toilet.

Despite the recent incidents, where prisoners managed to escape from the Anti-Terrorism Courts and City Courts, no security measures have been taken to avoid any untoward incident. “Without a fence, any prisoner can jump over the six-foot wall. The security is also at a bare minimum. Everything is at stake here,” lamented Iqbal.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2013.