LAHORE, July 15: The 14 anti-terrorism courts in Punjab acquitted 91 people from April 1 to July 2 and convicted 56 in 35 cases of high-profile sectarian violence. Defective probe probes was blamed for the low conviction rate.

In 19 out of the 35 cases, all the accused were acquitted on account of insufficient evidence.

The police, however, attributed it to reluctance on the part of the witnesses to testify against activists of militant groups, including the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan and the Sipah-i-Muhammad Pakistan.

The 35 cases had been prioritized by the Law Department in March out of the 108 cases pending before the ATCs. The basis for priority was said to be availability of witnesses, arrest of suspects and the likelihood of conviction.

Chief prosecutor Asghar Gill attributed the high percentage of acquittals to poor police performance. In most of the cases resulting in acquittal the suspects had been implicated without confirming their involvement in the offence. In some cases the courts had observed that the accused were not even present on the scene of crime.

“The hands of the prosecution were tied. It could not remove the lacunae in the challans once they are finalized by the police,” Mr Gill maintained. He acknowledged that the prosecution expected acquittals in certain prioritized cases. He said such cases had apparently been included in the list sent to the federal government by the Anti Terrorism Courts Prosecution Cell in February to improve the disposal rate for the financial year.

“Had we just proposed trials likely to result in conviction, the number of the prioritized cases would have been quite low,” he said.

Since early disposal of cases was the top priority of the government, he said, acquittals should not be seen as a failure. “The cases have been decided on merit. This speaks of the courts’ impartiality.”

In a case registered with Shad Bagh, Lahore, police against 19 activists of the SSP, 11 were acquitted. In another case registered with Raja Jang police, 10 were acquitted. A Rawalpindi court had acquitted all 17 men of the SMP in a case filed at the Wah Cantt police. In 13 cases, the courts had acquitted some of the accused and convicted the remaining.

Thirty-six people were acquitted by the ATCs in Lahore, 26 in Gujranwala, 20 in Multan and 10 in Faisalabad.

Out of the convicts, 44 were sentenced to death and 12 were awarded life term. Qari Muhammad Ahmad, Ghulam Qasim and Azizuddin of the SSP, convicted for shooting 13 people in a case registered with the Pindi Gheb police, were senetnced to 13 counts of death and fined Rs50,000 each.