More than 4,000 under trial prisoners languishing in jails
By HINA MAHGUL
KARACHI, June 03, 2005: More than 4,000 prisoners in Central Jail are under trial and waiting their cases to be decided since several years.
More than 1,000 are such detainees who committed minor offences but are languishing as their cases have not been decided.
This was stated by the jail authorities during a recent visit to Karachi Central Jail. Had these accused of minor crimes been heard, they should have been released long time back, said the Superintendent of jail.
The agony does not end here, every day 260 prisoners are taken to court and out of which only 170 are heard and rest come back waiting their turn.
Five judges come to Central Prison every day but there are so many cases that it is difficult to dispose of large number of cases.
He said that justice is so much delayed with these people that it is denied. The prisoners living in jail waiting for their trial are so fed up that one Farhan Khan who was sentenced to death is awaiting his appeal to be heard since last four years.
The flaws in justice system are creating delay in justice,said Khawaja Naveed Ahmed a senior lawyer. He said that despite of all the flaws and delay in justice but people are still hopeful and file cases in courts and hope that they would get justice.
He said that Jirga system is not an accurate system and cannot provide justice to all. It is there to safeguard the elite class crimes and avoid the punishments to them.
Although Jirga system is cheap and speedy decision making is its main feature but the decisions given by Jirga are not according to law and Islam.
He suggested that the number of judges should be increased not the number of courts. The conditions of the courts should be improved and incentives should be provided to the judges in order to get efficient results.
Training programme should be set for judges in order to improve their efficiency. He said that some believe that ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’ but some says that if ‘Justice hurried is justice buried.’
Khawaja said that no doubt that our judicial system has loopholes but it is the only system which could provide justice to the public.
Source: The Nation
Date:6/3/2005
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