LAHORE, May 19: The anti-terrorism courts in Punjab have not been able to decide cases within the time stipulated in the relevant act because the new schedule of offences, introduced earlier this year, has put them under a greater work pressure.
According to the Lahore High Court annual report for 2005, the 14 special courts functioning under the Anti-Terrorism Act across the province left some 725 cases pending on the last day of the year 2005 as against 545 on Dec 31, 2004. Of them, the four ATCs in Lahore disposed of 220 of 269 cases during 2005 leaving 141 cases pending, in addition to a backlog of 92 cases which were not decided by the end of 2004.
Similarly, the two ATCs at Gujranwala, which decided 339 of 373 cases during the year which saw 162 offences remaining undecided as against 124 towards the end of 2004.
In Multan the situation remained almost the same where two special courts left 88 cases pending as against 84 in 2004. The courts received 48 cases in 2005 and decided 42 of them. As for two courts in Rawalpindi, they were the slowest in proceeding on such cases. These courts had a backlog of 35 cases towards the end of 2004. They received 171 fresh cases and disposed of 102 of them.
The special court at Faisalabad, however, performed better than any other court in the province by disposing of 174 of 185 cases during the year. It still shows 53 cases pending because of a backlog of 64 cases in 2004.
The court at Sargodha, which had a minimum workload with 26 new cases during 2005, disposed 18 of them. The court had 10 pending cases which included a backlog of two cases from the previous year.
The special court at Bahawalpur also added to the number of pending cases by deciding 101 of 108 cases instituted during the year 2005. The number of undecided cases was 91 towards the end of the year with the addition of a backlog of 84 cases.
As for the special court at Dera Ghazi Khan, which had a backlog of 62 cases at the beginning of 2005, it disposed of only six of the 24 fresh cases in the year. As a result, it now has a backlog of 80 cases.
SUPREME COURT: The performance of ATCs has of late been a matter of concern as the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction over the rate of their disposal of cases.
The apex court observed that the ATCs were taking even years in deciding cases, whereas the law stipulated only one week for disposal of a case instituted in such a court.
The apex court constituted committees at the high court level with the instructions that they should work out a strategy for expeditious disposal of cases in coordination with the provincial police and other tiers of the subordinate judiciary.
The Lahore High Court Committee, headed by Justice Mian Mohammad Najamuz Zaman, convened in March a meeting of the special courts’ judges and other officers concerned, and gave the courts a deadline of May 31, 2006, to decide cases instituted before the year 2005.
However, most of the courts have reportedly communicated to the committee the difficulties facing them in early disposal of cases, and the procedure which has to be adopted before the start of the proceedings.
The procedure laid down in the Criminal Procedure Code says that an accused should get all documents, including charges, one week before the commencement of the trial.
Although special courts have a flexible procedure, they tend to prefer going by the commonly practised CrPC as the most convenient judicial procedure.
With a heavy backlog of 545 cases from the year 2004, the special courts may not be able to meet the deadline given by the LHC committee, which may revise its strategy on the basis of suggestions received from special courts and other quarters to achieve the goal of expeditious disposal of terrorism cases.