KARACHI: Laws are not properly enforced: ex-minister: HRCP workshop
KARACHI, Oct 2: The former federal minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Syed Iqbal Hyder, has said that laws in the country are not properly implemented.
Speaking on Thursday at the concluding session of a four-day workshop on “Juvenile Justice System in Pakistan”, Mr Hyder said: “No matter how good you have framed laws, but if they are not implemented they become useless.”
The workshop was organized by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in collaboration with the Panel Reforms International (PRI) and AGHS-Legal Aid Cell.
The former law minister disclosed that entire record of the cases in the Supreme Court was computerized in 1994 but since then no efforts were made to computerize the record of the judiciary.
“Nobody can tell you the number of laws in Pakistan because we do not have any list,” Mr Hyder claimed, adding that the Pakistan Penal Code had not been reviewed since 1978.
Discussing the problems faced by the judiciary, he said that courts were short of
facilities necessary for speedy trials.
“The judges do not have competent stenographers and many judgments are delayed just because of the non-availability of stenographer,” he said and claimed that in his tenure even the law ministry did not have a single trained draftsman.
He suggested that such a gape of facilities could be filled by the public and private partnership. “Government can appoint judges and non-governmental organizations can provide premises, secretarial services and other facilities,” he added.
Earlier, the Political Officer of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom at the British Deputy High Commission in Karachi, Gillian Wilson, said that the United Kingdom government firmly believed in protection and promotion of human rights.
“We are supporting projects that promote human rights here because it is in the national interest of Britain and Pakistan,” she added.
She was of the view that the governments were judged by their commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights.
She said that Child Rights needed more attention and her government was concerned about the state of children in many countries.
“The United Kingdom and Pakistan have ratified Convention on Rights of Children (CRC), so we must do whatever we can to ensure the rights of children,” she added.
Ms Wilson reiterated that her government would keep supporting the projects meant for the child rights.
In his remarks Andre Dunant, a former judge from Switzerland and a representative of the Penal Reform International, said that courts should avoid sending juvenile to prisons or Youthful Offenders Schools.
“There are many alternative of jail for a convicted juvenile,” he said, adding that they could be utilized for community services.
He was of the view that there was no dearth of funds as many international organizations were willing to support such projects.
Irshad Chaudhry, a representative of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, also spoke on the occasion and highlighted the objectives of the workshop.
Certificates were distributed among 30 participants of the workshop, including magistrates, probation officers, prosecution inspectors, jail officials and workers of the non-governmental organizations.—APP
