LAHORE: The Punjab Arms Amendment Ordinance promulgated in 2015 to strengthen the National Action Plan (NAP) for exemplary/stern punishments to ‘offenders’ carrying illegal weapons, seems to be ineffective.

The official record shows not a single ‘offender’ out of total 4,421 arrested during 2016 was awarded up to three-year punishment, raising question mark on the criminal justice system.

This situation has surfaced in the provincial capital having over 80 police stations and offices of top officials of the law-enforcement agencies which are closely monitoring [this] particular category of crime (sale, purchase and handling of illegal weapons).

Some senior legal experts claim that the ‘faulty’ prosecution is one of the major reasons that the accused are getting bails and minor punishments from courts.

‘Faulty’ prosecution being cited major reason for minor penalties

Another is of the view that the establishment of separate courts to deal with the cases being lodged under NAP is the [best] solution to the issue.

In 2015, Punjab Arms Amendment Ordinance (III of 2015) was promulgated after some drastic changes, an official privy to the information told Dawn.

Previously, he said, the offence of carrying [unlicenced] arm or illegal weapons was being lodged under section 13/20/65 of the Punjab Arms Ordinance 1965.

The offence under [this] ordinance was punished with imprisonment for a term which “may extend to seven years or with fine or both,” he said.

Keeping this in view, the government in 2015 felt the need to opt for an amendment in the law to bring culprits to the court of law for maximum punishment when the authorities concerned raised the issue that a majority of the offenders was getting minor punishments and fines under the [old] law.

Consequently, after the amendment punishment for carrying unlicenced arms under section 13(a) was defined “imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years and which may extend to seven years and fine”.

Despite this exercise, no visible change was observed which was evident from the very next year’s (2016) official statistics, the official said.

“The data shows gravity of the situation. It says the provincial capital police lodged total 4,416 cases of possessing illegal weapons during Jan 1, 2016 to Dec 31, 2016,” he said.

Of them 4,421 offenders were arrested and produced before courts. Interestingly, 4,784 weapons were recovered from them but 3,402 out of the arrested managed to secure bails, according to the data.

Another interesting fact is that only 350 accused were awarded punishments from one month to three year out of the total 813 as the remaining were only fined.

No one has been awarded punishment for more than three years to seven years despite the fact that 11 hand grenades, two detonators, 840 gram explosive material and 44 kalashnikovs had been recovered.

The pistols (4,031) were at the top of the [illegal] weapons that were recovered from the accused followed by guns (321), rifles (195) and revolvers (80).

Similarly, as many as 157,261 cartridges were also recovered in the total criminal cases lodged in 2016. The statistics further showed that 206 accused were acquitted of the charges.

“It is an issue of national importance and authorities should establish separate courts to deal with the criminal cases being lodged under NAP,” senior advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique said.

He said the establishment of special courts would not only ease burden on other judicial officers but would also help round up the criminals for exemplary punishments.

He said defective [prosecution] system was also helping the accused escape major punishments.

“I strongly believe that in 70 percent of cases, the accused are getting minor punishments or fines due to weak persecution,” he said adding neither evidence was properly produced [in courts] against the offenders nor cases were pursued accordingly.

Mr Azhar said a ‘stringent’ system to monitor the cases right from registration to the trial was also imperative to hold the criminals accountable for what they were doing.

“The disposal of cases, bails granted and punishments awarded should be made public online for the authorities concerned and this practice would also help address the issue,” Azhar Siddique said.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2017