Cases adjourned over unavailability of policemen

Most policemen in the city providing security to Zimbabwe cricket team.

LAHORE: Hearings of several court cases, in which policemen were scheduled to appear as prosecution witnesses, were adjourned on Tuesday after the Operations DIG wrote to the courts that they were busy with security duty for the Zimbabwe cricket team.  

The DIG wrote to District and Session Judge Tariq Iftikhar Ahmed saying that police would also not be able to produce all under-trial prisoners for their hearings in court on Tuesday since most policemen in the city have been assigned to the cricket team. He asked for the policemen to be excused from May 22 to May 31. He also mentioned in the letter that the police headquarters had an acute shortage of personnel as its disposal.

Judge Ahmed said they were under directions from the Lahore High Court to dispose of certain old cases on priority. He said it would not be possible for the courts to delay hearing of those cases. He directed police to make sure that special arrangement were made to ensure that under-trial prisoners were produced in court on the date of their hearing.

On Tuesday, almost all under-trial prisoners were produced in court. Only the policemen who were prosecution witnesses for various cases did not turn up despite issuance of notices.

District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Tariq Javed issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Sub-Inspector Muhammad Ishaq, prosecution witness in a murder trial, and adjourned the hearing.

Sub Inspector Sabir Ali, Head Constables Iftikhar Ahmed and Imtiaz Ali of Sanda police, Assistant Sub Inspector Ishtiaq, Constables Ashraf and Muhammad Mushtaq among others had failed to turn up in court to present their testimonies on Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2015.