IOs taken to task

Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, addressing police officers during a visit to the Central Police Office in Lahore on November 23, 2019, made the timely and pertinent observation that if an Investigation Officer (IO) produces false witnesses in a case, he would be held equally responsible for the crime. He underlined the critical role of Investigation Officers and their instrumentality in the provision of justice, which includes their official responsibility to submit challans in court within the given time limit, according to the law. The Chief Justice emphasised that the testimony of false witnesses should not be made part of any record, as had been the wrong practice since 1951. It is time now that this practice should be discouraged at all levels. The courts have taken action against 15 false witnesses till now, the Chief Justice revealed. On the question of a true witness being 'weak' and lacking the courage to present himself in court, thereby opening the door to false witnesses, it needs to be pointed out that in our society, the rich and powerful are in a position to browbeat the poor and weak, and this repressive structure is what lies behind this particular flaw in our judicial system. What is missing, despite being debated and suggested over many years, is an effective witness protection programme along the lines of the system in vogue in developed countries. The Chief Justice went on to guide the police officers in attendance on the role of the judiciary: the institution was supposed only to do justice according to the law. False witness, he went on, is in itself a crime. The objective of the investigation carried out by an Investigation Officer was only to find out the ground realities and facts, not take the statement of the plaintiff as proof of the veracity of the First Information Report (FIR). These realities and facts as revealed by the investigation then had to be conveyed to the court.

There is much wrong with our creaking judicial system, not the least of which are the cumbersome procedures entailed in the pursuit of justice. If to these procedural and structural impediments is added the practice (some would say habit) of police IOs to bend the facts of a case either for malign purposes (including bribery and corruption) or sheer laziness and convenience, this obviously cannot serve the ends of justice. Interestingly, one cannot recall any instances in the past of any Investigation Officers being charged with and punished for perjury because of presenting false witnesses or testimony in court. That is a lapse the judiciary needs to cogitate. While Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Asif Saeed Khosa dilated in his address referred to above on some of the judicial and court system reforms he has instituted on his watch, including tackling the mountain of pending cases at all tiers of the judiciary, it is in the foundations of our investigation and prosecution system under the police that the origins of many of the flaws in our judicial system can be traced. Without reforming this base, the pyramid of the judicial system will continue to suffer from distortions, injustice, and the ensuing questioning of the credibility and capability of the judicial system to deliver justice according to the law.