LAHORE, Feb 7: The cell monitoring anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) has proposed abolition of all 13 ATCs in the Punjab, saying that these courts do not have enough workload to justify their existence.
Sources told Dawn that in the proposal forwarded to the provincial home department, the cell had argued that the ATCs did not have much to do currently, and heavy administrative expenses could be avoided by their abolition.
According to the proposal, all the cases pending before the ATCs may be transferred to district and sessions judges.
They said sectarian and other high profile cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 had almost dried up during the last six months.
ATCs were formed by the regime of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 1997 for speedy trial of sectarian cases. In the year 2000, plane-hijacking was also included among the offences scheduled in the ATA, and Nawaz Sharif tried on the charge.
“Apparently, no strong reason exists for the existence of ATCs since there is hardly any trial of a sectarian case going on,” said a source in the monitoring cell. He disclosed that its chief, Asghar Gill, had resigned from his office on Jan 31, because he could hardly find anything to do in the current setup.
Alternatively, the home department was requested to reduce the number of ATCs in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Multan, where more than one court existed. It was proposed that there should be two ATCs in Lahore instead of four and one instead of two in the other three cities. ATCs are also working in Bahawalpur, Faisalabad and Sargodha.
The government was given the alternative of reducing the number of ATCs in view of the surplus pool of DSJs and the fact that the ATA would have had to be revoked for abolishing the ATCs.
The sources claimed that each court was hearing an average of two to three cases a day. According to the latest figures, there are 63 ordinary and 13 sectarian cases pending in four ATCs of Lahore, while just two cases were decided during the last two months. No sectarian case has been inducted since March 2002.
There had been no progress in over 20 sectarian cases since 1997, as a majority of the accused could not be arrested.
According to the sources, as much as Rs400,000 was annually spent on an ATC, excluding the emoluments paid to judges in the form of 130 litres of petrol a month, special security guards, house rent and renovation allowance.