THE trial of the accused in the Sahiwal incident never met the ends of justice. That fact was as clear as the broad daylight in which a couple, their teenaged daughter and a family friend were gunned down by CTD personnel on Jan 19, 2019, while travelling in a car on a highway in Punjab. However, all the six accused were acquitted in October that year after the witnesses resiled from their earlier statements.

On Tuesday, during a hearing of the Punjab government’s appeal against the acquittal, a Lahore High Court judge berated the witnesses — including the complainant in the case — for giving false statements. The court issued notices to the complainant as well as to a Sahiwal district police officer who, as per one of the witnesses, had pressured him to change his testimony.

The Sahiwal incident embodies the very worst elements of the criminal justice system in the country. Immediately after it occurred, the police put out a story that the family friend had links with a terrorist outfit and that all four individuals had been killed in an encounter with CTD personnel when the latter tried to stop the car. However, the accounts of the slain couple’s two surviving children, who were also in the vehicle when the bloodbath took place, and other witnesses revealed there was no encounter, but that the police had fired directly at the vehicle — no questions asked.

It is bad enough that law-enforcement personnel can be so ruthless as to mow down innocent people, including minors, and then blithely proceed to label it an encounter. That their colleagues can then proceed to intimidate witnesses in order to smooth the way for trigger-happy cops to go free is abhorrent. Sadly, for the police to threaten and torture individuals into giving statements that suit their purpose rather than the ends of justice has become part and parcel of thana culture in Pakistan. The court must not allow itself to be hoodwinked.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2021