ISLAMABAD, Feb 2: A report on the state of human rights in 2004 has asked the government to abolish the accountability and anti-terrorism courts (ATCs), as these have lowered public confidence in the judicial system.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its report also asked the government that its low priority to public interest legislation would delay ending people's alienation from the state, though its interest in pushing legislation required for its own functioning was understandable.
Laws made without affording due opportunity to the opposition for debate and for amendments will always remain controversial, it said, adding every effort should be made to ensure respect for the opposition's right to participate in law-making and governance.
Complaints that legislation still lacks evidence of due care and deliberations should be taken care of, the report recommended. Children must not be made to suffer for want of a rational and workable law that recognizes and respects their right to special treatment, the report further said, adding that the situation created by the court verdict on juvenile justice system ordinance needed to be addressed on emergency basis.
Priority should be given to a review and evaluation of the changes in the judicial system carried out over a decade or so, it said. The report suggested that the large number of laws enacted during periods of deviating from democratic rule would continue to create problems for the state and the people until the need to reform all such legislation in accordance with democratic norms was sincerity realized.
Proceedings on private member days in the two houses of parliament should not be approached by official benches in a partisan way. Instead, the government should welcome and encourage legislative proposals from private members.
Any encroachment on private members time on the days reserved for their motions should be avoided. Enhanced security concerns of the government, it said, had manifestly increased the challenges faced by the judicial system.
Unless due respect was paid to the independence of the judiciary and efforts were made to reinforce its role as the custodian of people's basic right to due protection of law, public faith in the system of justice was likely to be gravely undermined.
The report said the executive was yet to realize the harm it was doing to the judiciary as well as to itself by interfering for narrow considerations in appointments and promotions of superior court judges. Anything that compromises the independence of the judiciary must be scrupulously avoided, it suggested.
Long delays in filling the Supreme Court vacancies and the manner in which they were filled had revived doubts about administration's respect for judicial independence, it said.
The commission declared that the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) was not only a bad law but also it was an instrument of denying the people falling under its sweep their most basic rights and it merits the earliest possible burial.
