PESHAWAR, March 23: Criminal Justice Coordination Committee has directed the police to ensure the appearance of witnesses before courts to reduce the number of pending cases.

It was learnt that the senior superintendent of police, investigation, Dr Sadiq Kamal Orakzai, had sent the decisions of the committee to all the police stations on Saturday, directing them to comply with the directives.

The decisions were taken by the committee in its monthly meeting which was presided over by the district and sessions judge, Hayat Ali Shah, few days ago.

The chairman expressed concern over the non-compliance of decisions taken by the committee in its previous meetings and informed the participants that he came across various prisoners, during a visit to prison, whose cases could not be disposed of due to non-appearance of witnesses.

He stated that when the decisions of the committee were sent to the concerned station house officers (SHOs) they used to refer it to the Mohrar who in turn refer it to the defence foot constables (DFCs). Thus, he added, the decisions of the committee could not be implemented.

The chairman asked the SSP (investigation) to direct his staff to fully comply with the decisions. The committee directed the police to take interest in production of witnesses.

The district public prosecutor, Zubair Khan, pointed out that despite an earlier decision the police had not been producing records of cases in bail matters due to which simple bail applications continued to linger on. He added that such practice also gave rise to the number of pending cases.

The committee directed the police to produce the record in time so that the applications could be decided at the earliest.

The committee also expressed concern over the traffic system in the provincial capital specially plying of defective and out- tuned mini-buses and wagons.

The chairman directed the SP (traffic) to adopt measures for improving the traffic situation.

The committee was constituted by the government under section 109 of the Police Order, 2002. Under the law, the district and sessions judge would preside the committee.