Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa has emphasised that training of the investigation officers and prosecutors should be carried out in the judicial academies across the country to improve the investigation standards.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, who is also the Chairman Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP), stated this while chairing a meeting of Police Reform Committee held in the Supreme Court building and attended by inspectors general of police of all province, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Chief Justice had constituted a Police Reforms Committee with mandate to examine the relevant laws and to suggest recommendations therein in order to address the deficiencies in the current criminal justice system in the country especially in the context of police laws.
The committee in its meeting held on 7-1-2019 had decided that the police reforms may be prioritised for implementation and in this context the complaint redressal mechanism and police investigation may be taken up firstly.
The Chief Justice in his opening remarks highlighted the fact that despite launching of the Police Reforms Committee Report, the key stakeholders of the criminal justice system and the general public are not still aware of the contents of the same.
He directed that the Secretariat of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan should convene a meeting of the relevant stakeholders of the criminal justice system who would be briefed about the contents and purposes of the Police Reforms Committee report.
The inspector general of police Punjab informed that the complaints redressal mechanism has already been operationalised after the direction of the Steering Committee on Police Reforms dated 29 October 2018. He said the complaints are being received through email, post, by hand, through dedicated phone numbers and other means of communication for convenience and to facilitate the general public for speedy and expeditious redressal of grievances, being faced by them.
The inspector general of police Punjab informed that around 163 complaints are being received per day to the fulltime designated police officers. He further stated that total of 11,436 complaints were received for the period from 1st December 2018 to 8th February 2019 and 7,382complaints have been disposed of while 4,054 are under process.
The inspector general of police Sindh informed that 21,218 complaints were pending on 31st December 2018 and the number of complaints received in January 2019, was 2,324.He further stated that the total pendency was 23,542.He further stated that 17,313 complaints were disposed of in January 2019 and the pendency as on 1st February 2019 was 6,229.
The inspector general of police KPK informed that during January 2019 a total number of 1,573 complaints were received. He further stated that 1,037 complaints have been disposed of till 31 January 2019 while 536 are pending.
The inspector general of police Balochistan informed that so far 117 complaints have been received. He further stated that 72 have been disposed of and 45 are under process.
The inspector general of police ICT informed that for the period from 1st November 2018 till date, a total of 3,845 complaints have been received. He further stated that 3,283 complaints have been redressed while 250 are in process.
The inspector general of police Gilgit-Baltistan informed that 15 complaints have been received and 10 have been resolved while 5 are pending.
After these presentations the committee deliberated that such complaints redressal mechanism will provide speedy and expeditious redressal to the complaints of the general public at their own doorstep and would also decrease the burden/backlog of the courts of law in the shape of 22-A and 22-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 and writ petitions of similar nature.
The Chief Justice pointed out the grey areas of the investigations and emphasised upon investigating agencies to chalk out such mechanism of investigation that not only the culprits of the offence are pointed out but they be convicted under the relevant provisions of law by providing the truthful evidence and the apprehension of false evidence be totally eliminated.