President Zardari urges for legislation to protect witnesses

In order to establish a transparent justice system, President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the Sindh government to work on a legislation that ensures better protection for witnesses.

The president while presiding over a law and order meeting at Sindh Chief Minister’s House was briefed on the law and order situation of the city by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.

In his view, one of the major hindrances in effective prosecution was witnesses backing out due to pressure from the accused parties, suggesting the provincial law minister to draft a suitable legislation for the protection of the witnesses and their families after consulting all stakeholders.

President Zardari advised the government to study the model of witness protection laws adopted in other countries in wake of rising militant activities for this purpose.

Earlier, he was briefed about how notorious criminals were being released owing to lack of evidence against.

He was also informed that witnesses afraid of reprisals declined to come forward and record statements.

Zardari emphasized that the maintenance of law and order was a shared responsibility of all the political forces in the province and concerted efforts should be made by all concerned for ensuring peace in the metropolitan city.

During the meeting, President Zardari also directed the authorities concerned to halt the sale of mobile SIMs at retail outlets.

He took notice of the use of mobile phones by militants and criminals in terrorism and other related activities, asking the Sindh government to work out a plan so that no Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) are delivered at retail shops or outlets of mobile companies, instead, they should be posted to the applicant’s address as mentioned on their Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC).

The president also took notice of the proliferation of weapons in Karachi, saying that arms licenses should be ‘Smart Card’ based so as to ensure that no fictitious licenses were issued.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Nov 2 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.