KARACHI: With a conviction rate of nearly 32 per cent, the antiterrorism courts in Sindh have disposed of 798 cases between September 2013 and November 2014 while around 2,700 cases are still pending, it emerged on Monday.

The statistics of 33 ATCs in the province showed that of the 798 disposed of cases, accused were acquitted in 543 cases and convicted in 255 cases.

Eight of the total ATCs had a cent per cent acquittal rate in the 15-month period.

The ATCs were established under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 for speedy trial of cases pertaining to terrorism, sectarian killing, extortion and kidnapping for ransom.

According to Section 19 (7) of the ATA, the court shall, on taking cognizance of a case, proceed with the trial from day to day and shall decide the case within seven days. Section 13 (2) of the law said that the cases shall be assigned to a court on the basis of one case at a time.

Faulty probes and lack of witness protection behind high acquittal rate

However, a huge backlog of cases is one of the main reasons behind an inordinate delay in their disposal. The number of pending cases before the ATCs of the province is 2,697.

The province has 18 permanent ATCs, including nine in Karachi and one each in Hyderabad, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur and Kashmore/Kandhkot.

In March 2013, the government on the directives of the apex court had given 15 sessions courts in Karachi the additional task of acting as ATCs and trying the cases falling within the ambit of the ATA to clear the backlog of cases.

The provincial government has recently set up ATC-X at Karachi, but the court has yet to try the cases for want of a prosecutor.

The figures showed that ATC/1st ADJ South, ATC/2nd ADJ South, ATC/3rd ADJ South, ATC/1st ADJ West, ATC/1st ADJ East, ATC/2nd ADJ East, ATC/2nd ADJ Malir and ATC Shaheed Benazirabad had a zero conviction rate.

The ATCs in Karachi have disposed of 290 cases —150 acquittals and 140 convictions — during the 15-months period, while 1,782 cases are still pending.

Of the 140 guilty verdicts, 62 cases relate to illicit weapons possession, 23 to extortion, 22 to kidnapping for ransom, 17 to murder, 11 to attempted murder and five to possession of explosives.

The 15 sessions courts currently holding trial in ATA cases decided 43 cases during the 15-month period with 36 acquittals and seven convictions.

According to the official figures, the ATC-I disposed of 74 cases with 31 guilty verdicts; ATC-II 65 cases with 41 convictions; ATC-III 15 cases with four conviction; ATC-IV 37 cases with 18 convictions; ATC-V 67 cases with 29 convictions; ATC-VII three cases with one conviction; ATC-VIII 11 cases with five convictions and ATC-IX decided 18 cases with 11 convictions. ATC-VI did not dispose of any case.

Four of the ATCs — ATC-VI to IX — were established in September 2014, while the ATC-VI was lying vacate since November 2014.

The ATC Hyderabad decided 83 cases and gave 18 guilty verdicts; ATC Badin disposed of 76 cases with 17 convictions; ATC Mirpurkhas 22 cases with eight convictions; ATC Shaheed Benazirabad 39 cases with no conviction; ATC Khairpur 59 cases with 22 convictions; ATC Sukkur 43 cases with six convictions; ATC Larkana 56 cases with 13 convictions; ATC Shikarpur 46 cases with 18 convictions and ATC Kashmore/Kandhkot disposed of 41 cases with six convictions.

More than 10 cases have still been awaiting disposal in the ATCs for the past one decade. The case against a suspected militant of Jundullah, Qasim Toori, who had allegedly masterminded the 2004 attack on a convoy of the then Karachi corps commander, a 2003 murder case against accused Shahnawaz, 2006 Nishtar Park bombing case, a 2001 case pertaining to the killing of the elder brother of former Sindh governor Moinuddin Haider against alleged Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militants and around five sectarian killing cases of 2002 against LJ militants are still pending before ATCs.

Legal experts blamed defective investigations and a lack of protection to witnesses for low conviction rate.

Advocate M. R. Syed said that the investigation officers were not properly trained and their defective investigation mainly led to the acquittal of the accused persons.

The government must arrange training programmes for the IOs and prosecutors in order to improve the conviction rate, he added.

Senior lawyer Mushtaq Ahmed was of the view that the cases were not being investigated properly, as the police created evidence instead of honestly collecting it. Besides, the police foisted connected cases such as police encounter, illicit weapons and explosive substances on the accused, which eventually result in acquittal in the main case, he added.

Lack of protection for witnesses and other people connected with the trial also damage the cases of the prosecution.

Sindh’s former prosecutor general and senior lawyer Shahadat Awan said that lacunas in the investigation benefited the accused party.

Besides, he said, there was a shortage of IOs and prosecutors.

He said that the government had sanctioned 400 posts for investigation and law officers for the police department and these positions must be filled immediately in order to improve the performance of the investigating agencies.

Mr Awan said that the recruitment of prosecutors, legal assistant for police and protection of witnesses were also necessary to improve the conviction rate.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2015

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