RAWALPINDI  - The ex#tremists and terrorists can easily target District Courts any time because of poor security arrangements in and around the court premises as well as at newly constructed Judicial Complex, a survey conducted by The Nation revealed on Friday.
A large number of people, including lawyers, judges, litigants and some most dangerous criminals, visit the courts daily while no proper security arrangements can be witnessed at the main entrances and car parking area of the courts.
Physical scrutiny of persons coming to the courts is also not carried out and no one is asked to introduce himself whether he is a lawyer or a complainant. The most worried thing is that the only walkthrough gate installed at the entrance of JC has been dysfunctional for the last many days. The police officials deputed at security duty can be seen busy chatting often closing their eyes towards what is happening around them.
Moreover, no personnel is deputed at the main gate of old court building to check vehicles entering court premises and many vehicles can be witnessed in the parking area without court stickers.
Lack of proper security arrangements has resulted in many incidents of under-trial prisoners escaping from custody, murders, murder attempts, brawls while if measures are not taken to enhance security at the court, incidents like these may continue to occur in future.
Malik Zaheer Arshad, secretary general district bar association (DBA), while talking to The Nation said that recently a high-level meeting, presided over by a sessions judge and with attendance of district coordination officer (DCO) and city police officer (CPO), was held to discuss the security issues at district courts.
He said that after continuous violence against lawyers in the country, the Supreme Court took suo moto notice and ordered the CPO to beef up security of lawyers and judges in district bar. He said that the DCO informed them that they had got allocated funds for the installments of walkthrough gates and CCTV cameras. Nonetheless, the DBA Secretary General was not happy with the security arrangements made by Rawalpindi police.
Acting CPO/SSP (Operations) Israr Ahmed Abbasi, during a chat with this scribe, admitted the feeble security arrangements at the court premises. He told that he had taken a stern notice of dysfunctional walkthrough gate at court premises. He ordered the authorities concerned to install walkthrough gate and enhance security in and outside of district courts to avoid any untoward incident.