ISLAMABAD - In order to eliminate the lacunas in the criminal justice system, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa on Friday directed all the lower courts and magistrates to strictly adhere to the top court’s guidelines on identification parade.
Heading a two-judge bench, the Chief Justice in its order also cited the relevant judgments on identification parade including the one authored by former judge Khalilur Rehman Ramday.
The Chief Justice also directed that copy of instant order, containing citation of judgments on identification parade, to be sent to high courts to ensure strictly adherence by magistrates and lower courts.
The order was issued after hearing Magistrate Kanwar Anwar Ali, who was summoned by the top court on account of not fulfilling the legal obligations in identification parade due to which an accused was wrongly implicated and awarded death sentence on murdering a student namely Adil Butt.
The death penalty to accused person Asfandyar Khan was awarded in 2009 by Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) which later converted into life imprisonment by the Lahore High Court (LHC).
However, the top court had acquitted Asfandyar, who already served 10 years of his life imprisonment in jail, observing lacunas in prosecution case.
On February 12, summoning the magistrate at relevant point of time, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had lamented that it is distressing to see such cases and questioned why suspects are being treated this way. He had further observed that a child was killed and magistrate failed to follow legal obligations due to which a suspect was convicted, adding those who are supposed to follow the law should be held answerable.
He had further observed that everyday this court witnesses that the police get to suspects immediately adding the suspects are real but the testimonies are false. “Where will the law go if we too shut our eyes,” questioned Chief Justice Khosa adding someone has to take initiative to ensure law is being followed. He had also raised questions over the procedure followed by police to determine the guilt of a suspect.
Complying with the top court’s order, Kanwar appeared before the bench and tendered apology saying that he had committee mistake because he was an administrative officer.
He further informed the bench that he was promoted to the post of a magistrate on his second day at work and on the tenth day of his appointment he carried out identification parade in murder case of Adil Butt.
He further confessed that he was not aware of police laws and the procedure pertaining to identification parade.
Chief Justice Khosa remarked that the onus for wrongful appointment was on the state. He further observed that Kanwar submitted a comprehensive reply and added that the identification parade pertains to Police Rules and not civil or criminal codes.
Chief justice accepted Kanwar’s apology and observed that lining up suspects for identification is a flawed practice and the suspects should be identified separately.
He further remarked that the suspect’s protection should be ensured by the trial court. He warned that such mistakes should not be repeated. The Chief Justice further observed that the top court will take serious notice if the directives regarding identification parade are not followed strictly.
The focus of Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, since the day he took the reins of Supreme Court, has been making criminal justice system in order. For the purpose, he is witnessed to have been saying that the weaknesses in prosecution, which lead wrong convictions, need to be eliminated.
In famous Aasia Bibi Case, Chief Justice Khosa remarked that had it been any other criminal case the penalty of lifetime imprisonment under Section 194 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) after summary trial would have been imposed on witnesses.