Security concerns: Govt seeks transfer of nine cases to other provinces

Among them is the murder trial of Geo reporter Wali Babar and former prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa.

KARACHI:

The targeted operations to restore peace in Karachi might be making headway but an uphill task for the government is taking the outlaws to task.

This failure of the government became apparent on Friday when the home department approached the superior courts to seek a transfer of the trial of high-profile cases to other provinces. The department seeks to transfer these cases out of Sindh under the provisions of the recently promulgated Protection of Pakistan Ordinance, The Express Tribune has learnt.

According to sources, the home department has approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan, as well as, the Sindh High Court to order transfer at least nine cases to any other province following threats to the witnesses and the prosecutors involved.



These cases include the murder trials of Geo TV reporter Wali Khan Babar, former prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa, Sir Syed police SHO Irfan Haider, New Karachi police station SIO Shahbaz and others.

Decision

The decision to relocate these trials was taken during a meeting of the law and order committee, headed by Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, and attended by the provincial chiefs of the police, Rangers and the prosecution department, said an official privy to the developments. “At the meeting, the issue of the problems being faced in the ongoing nine trials was raised,” he said. “So it was decided to relocate these trials - something that is now possible under the provisions of the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance.”

Earlier, the provincial government had successfully relocated Wali Babar’s murder trial from the anti-terrorism court of Karachi to Kashmore-Kandhkot district. The officials claimed, however, that the exercise did not make much difference. “It’s not an easy job to move the prosecutor, the witnesses and the accused from one place to the other,” a senior officer privy to the development told The Express Tribune.

He added that the police department wanted to transfer Naimat Ali Randhawa’s murder trial outside the province, while others could be heard within Sindh. The home department enhanced, however, the list of the cases. It has requested the apex court, as well as, the high court chief justice to order a transfer of the trials.

Protection of Pakistan Ordinance

A new section, 28-A, was added to the section 28 of the Anti-Terrorism Act on October 20 this year, when President Mamnoon Hussain promulgated the ordinance. This additional sections allows the government, where it seems necessary, to request the chief justice of the high court to transfer a case from an anti-terrorism court within its jurisdiction to an anti-terrorism court in any other place in Pakistan.

“The federal government may, in the interest of justice and for the protection and safety of the witnesses, and investigators, transfer the investigation of any case from one place to any other place in the Pakistan.” Earlier, the investigation and trial could only be relocated within one province.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2013.