September 10, 2006	Sunday	Sha'aban 16, 1427

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LAHORE, Sept 9: The government has proposed through a bill that all prisons in the country will earmark specific areas for the establishment of high security zones where those sentenced to death shall be kept.

The proposed law says that a person involved in acts of terrorism, sabotage, murder and other offences which carry death as penalty, shall not be kept together with other prisoners in jails. They will also not be regarded as condemned prisoners before a high court confirms their capital punishment. Till such time they shall be kept in high security zones to be built in all prisons of the country.

The provision is contained in a bill that the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights recently has moved in the National Assembly seeking the enactment of the Law Reforms Act, 2006.

The bill seeks to bring amendments to 11 sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, nine sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and one section each of the General Clauses Act, 1897, the Specific Relief Act, 1877, the Power of Attorney Act, 1882 and the Registration Act, 1908. The bill is said to be under the consideration of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on the subject.

The objective enunciated for the amendments by the Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Chaudhry Mohammad Wasi Zafar is that the government wants to reform certain criminal and civil laws to ensure speedy justice, create an environment of specialisation by separating the two disciplines of offences in the administration of criminal and civil justice. Courts of magistrates will be so bifurcated as to make sure that a magistrate assigned with criminal justice shall not be given the task of adjudicating civil disputes.

Another objective of the bill, according to the minister, is that the courts will be encouraged to resolve civil and commercial disputes through the method of ‘alternative dispute resolution’ which was prevalent throughout the world and has proved a ‘big success’ in saving time and energy of parties to the dispute.

WOMEN: The bill also proposes an amendment to 497 (1) of the Cr P C to provide that women involved in offences which carry a punishment less than 10 years shall be released on bail. In this regard all the ‘minor’ offences are being so amended as to make them bailable for women. But this concession shall not be available to women about whom sufficient evidence will be available that they are guilty of offences relating to narcotics, terrorism, murder, dacoity for murder, kidnapping for ransom, corruption or corrupt practices and offences which carry a term of more than 10 years in prison.

ARREST: According to another proposal, section 54 (1) of the Cr P C is to be so amended that the incharge of a police station shall verify charges of suspicion in a case for registering a complaint against the person so arrested and the SHO shall record the reasons in writing.

Section 54 (A)(1) of the same law is also being proposed to be amended in a way as to inform the person arrested on suspicion about the grounds of arrest not later than 24 hours of the arrest and he or she shall not be denied the right to consult a lawyer.

The police station shall also be under the obligation of informing the family about the arrest. In the same connection, section 60 (2) shall be changed to provide for the satisfaction a magistrate about the legality and propriety of the ground of arrest.

As for the separation of civil and criminal justice, the bill proposes to insert section 17 (A) in the Cr P C to provide for distribution of civil and criminal business among magistrates. The magistrate assigned to criminal business shall not be assigned adjudication of civil disputes. This amendment ensures separation of civil and criminal justice with the purpose of specialisation and expeditious justice.

PPC: As for the amendments to PPC, the bill seeks to insert section 167 (A) to provide for an enhanced punishment of three years with fine to the police official who is found guilty of dishonest investigation. Section 344 (A) of the same law provides that a police official or an officer shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years if found guilty of confining a citizen without a lawful authority. Both the above changes in the law are set to be in line with the new Police Order, 2002 which proposes punishment for illegality of police persons.

The bill also proposes that the punishment for theft shall be enhanced from three to five years in prison. As for a cattle theft, the punishment proposed is a maximum of seven years with fine which shall not be less than twice the value of stolen cattle which will be payable to the owner.

As for forgery (section 420 PPC) of any kind, the punishment is proposed to be raised to 10 years instead of seven at the moment.