RAWALPINDI, Dec 5: The special judicial magistrate, Syed Abbas Raza Gillani, on Wednesday directed the SSP, Rawalpindi, Kalim Imam, to ensure appearance of policemen in courts as witnesses so that hearing of cases could be held without delay.

The judge in a letter to the SSP said: “There are different cases in his court that are delayed due to non-appearance of police officials. Majority of the protracted cases are due to the fact that police officials do not appear before the court as witnesses, which not only affects court proceedings but also creates inconvenience for the common men”.

He said, “the court has already issued non-bailable arrest warrants against 605 policemen of different police stations last month, who failed to appear before the court.”

It is regrettable that so far not even a single policeman had been produced from the New Town police station, Sadiqaabad police station, Westridge police station and Saddar Bairuni police station as witnesses.”

The court asked the SSP to explain the reason for this delay and directed him to ensure presence of these policemen so that people could get justice and cases are disposed off soon.

The judge also sent a copy of the letter to the inspector general of Punjab police, deputy inspector general of Rawalpindi and the district and sessions judge Rawalpindi for record.