A full bench of the Supreme Court here on Friday directed the Inspector General of Police, Punjab, to take steps to improve the investigation system and train investigators concordance with the present day needs.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, while hearing appeals against the death conviction awarded to three persons on the charges of hurling grenade at a texala church in August 2002, found the investigation riddled with flaws.
The court was astonished to note that Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, Saadat Mahdi, left many loopholes and bypassed material facts in the probe. The IO learnt from the witnesses that the convicts, Ayaz, Saifullah and others were already in police custody in a case registered in Murree and another in Pirwadai, but did not bother to look into the relevant record to ascertain facts. The officer also did not take into account the fact that the empties recovered did not match with the rest of them.
The CJ strongly chided the IO and deplored the poor investigation system of the police. He remarked that the department must show responsibility and correct itself or the court would do it. Seeking action against the IO, he noted that the officer was promoted to DSP as a 'credit' of his defective investigations.
In his remarks, Justice Ramday said that police have the tactics to promptly level charges on anyone to save their own skin. Previously, he recalled that police were quick to plant illegal arms against a person to implicate him in a case but now, they have chosen 'maulvis' to charge them as terrorists instead of the actual perpetrators. The poor nation is miserable at the hand of police inefficiency, he said asking DIG, Mushtaq Sukhera, to do something to revive credibility of the department. He further said that if innocent persons were hanged, this would not be pleasing for the Christian community either. The bench reserved the decision, observing it is an important matter and all of its aspects would be looked into.
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