KARACHI: With a conviction rate as low as 33 per cent, 19 antiterrorism courts in Sindh disposed of a total of 1,228 cases between January and November 2015, it emerged on Thursday.

Over 3,360 cases are still pending trial in the 10 ATCs in Karachi and one each in Hyderabad, Badin/Naushahro Feroze, Mirpurkhas, Khairpur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Shikarpur and Kashmore/Kandhkot.

According to combined data, the 19 ATCs acquitted accused persons in 818 cases during the 11-month period (from January to November) with the acquittal rate of around 67 per cent. The courts convicted accused in 410 cases.

The Shaheed Benazirabad-ATC has the lowest conviction rate (0.03pc) while the ATC-I (Karachi) has the highest conviction rate i.e. 58.5pc.

Unlike the law enforcement agencies which time and again blame poor prosecution for their failure in courts, judicial experts point the accusing finger at investigation agencies and the provincial government for the abysmal conviction rate. Current and former prosecutors who spoke to Dawn on the condition of anonymity said that defective and poor investigations by law enforcement agencies and the Sindh government’s failure to implement its witness protection law were the major causes of such a huge acquittal rate.

They said that the conviction rate could be improved with an effective coordination between prosecutors and investigation agencies. Also, the induction of law officers/prosecutors in police for supervision of the investigation of cases would result in getting better results, they suggested.

According to the figures, the 10 ATCs in Karachi decided 757 cases and convicted accused in 275 cases. The remaining nine ATCs in Sindh disposed of 471 cases with 135 conviction orders.

The conviction ratio remained around 36 per cent and 28pc, respectively.

According to the figures, the ATC-I disposed of 82 cases with 48 convictions during the January-November period; ATC-II 124 cases with 40 convictions; ATC-III 57 cases with nine convictions; ATC-IV 50 cases with 18 convictions; ATC-V 100 cases with 45 convictions; ATC-VI 59 cases with 24 conviction; ATC-VII 54 cases with nine convictions, ATC-VIII 83 cases with 37 convictions; ATC-IX 81 cases with 28 convictions and ATC-X decided 67 cases and convicted accused in 17 cases.

The Hyderabad-ATC decided 104 cases with 15 convictions, Badin-ATC 69 cases with 26 convictions; Mirpurkhas-ATC 13 cases with five convictions; Shaheed Benazirabad-ATC 28 cases with one conviction, Khairpur-ATC 52 cases with 33 convictions; Sukkur-ATC 51 cases with 16 convictions; Larkana-ATC 57 cases with 20 convictions; Shikarpur-ATC 57 cases with 14 convictions and Kashmore/Kandhkot-ATC disposed of 40 cases with five convictions.

75pc cases pending in Karachi ATCs

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

Section 19 (7) of the ATA said the court shall proceed with the trial on a day-to-day basis and shall decide it within seven days. Similarly, Section 13 (2) of the same law stated that one case at a time shall be assigned to a court.

However, a big backlog of cases is one of the main reasons behind the inordinate delay in their disposal as the overburdened ATCs are unable to decide the cases within the stipulated period as some decades-old cases are still the list of pending cases.

Seventy-five per cent (2,540) of the total 3,366 cases, which are still waiting to meet the ends of justice before the ATCs of Sindh, are pending trial in Karachi ATCs.

According to the statistics, the number of pending cases on Nov 30 in ATC-I is 259; ATC-II (300), ATC-III (305), ATC-IV (259), ATC-V (267), ATC-VI (208), ATC-VII (101), ATC-VIII (262), ATC-IX (237) and 273 cases are pending before ATC-X. Similarly, 156 cases are still pending at Hyderabad-ATC, 94 in Badin, 19 in Mirpurkhas, 31 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 252 in Khairpur, 157 in Sukkar, 22 in Larkana, 72 in Shikarpur and 20 cases are waiting for disposal at Kashmore/Kandhkot-ATC.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2015