ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has berated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government over belated submission of investigation reports, regretting that failure to meet deadlines ‘for no ostensible reasons’ was a sign of bad governance.

“Belated submission of investigation reports, for no ostensible reasons, undermines the rule of law and is a good indicator of bad governance,” observed Justice Qazi Faez Isa while deciding a bail petition.

A four-page order authored by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, released on Monday, regretted that no in-depth investigation was required since police themselves were a complainant in the matter.

Gul Rehman, the petitioner, was booked at Nowshera district’s Jalozai police station on May 3 under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Arms Act of 2013 on a charge of carrying an unlicensed pistol, a shotgun, a rifle and a large number of bullets and cartridges.

In case of conviction, the maximum punishment in the case is seven years imprisonment.

Since police have neither submitted an investigation report (challan) nor even an interim report, the trial has not commenced as yet, even though Gul Rehman is in custody.

Justice Isa recalled a recent example when the court admonished the prosecution, on a bail petition, for not having submitted the investigation report even after a lapse of seven months.

The judgement observed that the matter of non-submission, or an inordinately late submission, of investigation reports needed to be critically examined and redressed since such a practice promoted lawlessness.

Trials do not begin in time due to negligence of the police and the prosecution in not submitting investigation reports within a certain period, the court observed.

Consequently, either the accused is kept from being punished for the crime committed by him or is unable to secure his freedom. In either eventuality a wrong signal is sent out that the judiciary is unnecessarily releasing the accused on bail or keeping an innocent person in detention for no good reason, the judgement regretted.

The focus shifts away from early conclusion of trials to incidental matters, such as pursuing the remedy of bail by the accused and the extent of the state’s, as well as the complainant’s resources spent.

The court’s time is wasted in attending to bail matters when it would have been better spent in attending to trial and appeals, the order said. “This intolerable state of affairs must come to an end.”

Citizens face the consequences when they violate the law, but the state gets away with violating the law far too often, the order regretted.

The Supreme Court ordered the KP chief secretary to thrash out a mechanism to overcome “this endemic problem” after holding a meeting with the provincial police officer, the secretary to the home and tribal affairs department, the director of public prosecution and the advocate general.

“A report signed by all the officers who attend such a meeting be submitted to the Supreme Court within one month from the receipt of this order,” the judgement said.

“Failing to submit a report, or one which does not resolve the problem, may constrain us to take notice and pass appropriate orders,” Justice Isa observed.

The court granted bail to the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2021