ISLAMABAD: The plan to appoint ad-hoc judges in the Supreme Court to clear the backlog of pending criminal cases has underscored a sorry state of affairs in the judiciary, revealing how litigants, especially those who filed jail petitions, are suffering due to the inefficiency of the system where justice is mostly delayed.

According to the Supplementary Cause List for July 10, a three-judge bench consisting of Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan, was set to take up a raft of 45 jail petitions, but it turned out that at least 10 of the appellants on the list had passed away before the top court could even take up their pleas, much less adjudicate on them.

A month ago, the same bench had taken up 50 similar pleas, only to find that 12 of the convicts had already died.

Ironically, the majority of these jail petitions were filed in 2017, though some were filed over subsequent years as well. However, most of them were fixed for hearing in May or July of the current year. All the jail pleas were taken up for hearing for the first time by the court and since these had become infructuous, they were subsequently disposed of accordingly.

Many litigants already dead by the time SC took up their jail petitions

Though a number of convicts whose cases were heard by the bench had already been released on different dates, the petitioners who filed jail petitions were facing life imprisonment under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), including murder charges or rape.

Jail pleas

“Jail petitions suggest that the convict who filed the petition believing that he has been wrongly arraigned in the charge has no means to engage a private counsel,” commented Qazi Adil, Vice Chairman of Islamabad Bar Council, while talking to Dawn.

Mr Qazi, who specialises in criminal cases, said these jail petitions should always be heard on an urgent basis since unlike civil cases, no compensation could be granted to the accused or convict if they were charged for an offence, served out a large time in jail or expired while serving the jail term, but were later held to be innocent at the appeal stage.

Usually, the jail superintendent has the authority to facilitate an inmate to submit a simple application on a piece of paper if he believes that the convict has no means to engage a private counsel to plead his innocence in the courts. In such cases after receiving jail petitions, the Supreme Court office prepares a file by assigning a number under the jail plea in which the state counsel is hired to defend the petitioner.

Recently, the counsel regretted, that the same bench on Tuesday last acquitted four men convicted of the 2004 murder of Inspector Raja Saqlain, who investigated the assassination attempt on former military dictator Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi.

The Supreme Court acquitted Arshad Sati, Tahir Abbasi and Qari Younis on the basis of weak evidence, but ironically one of the accused Eid Muhammad had died in prison, Qazi Adil said, adding that had he been alive, he would have also walked out of the prison as a free man.

“Laws governing criminal cases should be amended in a way by providing a direct appeal before the Supreme Court against the conviction by the lower judiciary than going through the arduous task of first granting leave to appeal and then taking up the appeal in the normal course,” said a senior lawyer from the Punjab prosecution department.

Waiting for justice

The supplementary cause list for July 10, which consists of 45 cases, revealed that Muhammad Arif, who was sentenced to 25 years for offences under Section 376(1) of the PPC (it pertains to rape), died on Oct 14, 2018, when his jail petition of 2017 was taken up by the court. Likewise, Muhammad Boota, facing life imprisonment, died on Sept 7, 2021, when his 2017 jail petition was taken up by the court.

Saifullah, facing life imprisonment, died on Aug 19, 2022, when his 2017 jail petition was taken up; Falakh Sher died on Jan 7, 2018; Muhammad Ramzan expired on March 28, 2020; Abdul Rehman died on July 6, 2020; Moeen Akhtar died on Aug 8, 2023; Bux Ali died on Jan 25, 2023; Pir Bux died on March 22, 2021; and Qaim Muhammad died on Oct 30, 2023.

Likewise, the supplementary cause list of May 28 showed that Muhammad Younis, facing life imprisonment, died on May 29, 2023; Shaukat Ali died on Nov 1, 2020; and Rasheed Ahmad died on March 1, 2022. Their jail appeals relate to 2018.

Likewise, Abdul Khalid died on Oct 8, 2022, Muhammad Aslam died on Feb 3, 2022; and Aqib died on July 23, 2021. Baboo, who had filed a jail petition in 2019, died on Dec 7, 2021.

Muhammad Ameen died on Nov 19, 2021, even though he had filed his jail plea in 2020, Abdul Ghaffar had also filed an appeal in 2020 but died on Oct 21, 2022.

Liaquat Ali, who filed an appeal in 2021, died on Nov 2, 2021, Muhammad Akram filed his plea in 2020 but passed away on June 8, 2024, Ghulam Farid died on July 29, 2023, three years after he filed his appeal. Muhammad Murad died on April 8, 2024; he had filed his plea in 2018.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2024