ISLAMABAD – President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill of 2011 into law on Monday, a piece of legislation that grants statutory bail to suspects under trial and convicts whose trials and appeals have not been disposed of within a prescribed time limit. The bill was signed into law at a special ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Presidential Spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters that henceforth, a prisoner under trial would be entitled to statutory bail if he or she had been charged with any offence not punishable by death and had been detained for one year. In case of an offence punishable by death, the accused should be entitled to statutory bail if the trial had not been finished in two years.
Babar said convicts whose appeals were pending would also be entitled to statutory bail. A convict would be entitled to statutory bail if the term of imprisonment did not exceed three years and the appeal had not been decided within 6 months of conviction, he said. The presidential spokesman said in case of imprisonment exceeding three years but less than seven years, the convict would be entitled to statutory bail if the appeal remained undecided even after a year of conviction. If a convict had been sentenced to life imprisonment or imprisonment for more than seven years, they would be entitled to bail if their appeal remained undecided even after two years of conviction, he said.
He said that the law envisaged special concessions to female prisoners under trial, for instance, such women would be eligible for statutory bail in half the time specified for male convicts. A female prisoner under trial would thus be entitled to statutory bail if she was accused of any offence not punishable by death and had been detained for over six months. In case of an offence punishable by death the accused woman prisoner would be eligible for statutory bail if the trial had not been completed in one year instead of two years, as in the case of male prisoners in a similar situation, he said.
Babar said that this concession, however, would not be available to a previously convicted offender for an offence punishable by death or life imprisonment or to a person who, in the opinion of the trial or appellate court, was a hardened, desperate or dangerous criminal or was accused of an act of terrorism punishable by death or life imprisonment. Henceforth, he said, no one would be kept in prison indefinitely because of either delay in commencement of the trial or disposal of their appeals.
Zardari said that his head was bowed in gratitude before God for having undone a grave wrong inflicted on the people of Pakistan for no fault of theirs, and they were made to suffer only because political scores were to be settled.
The president also called upon female parliamentarians to propose further amendments to the law whereby a woman was entitled to bail even at a police station. The president also congratulated parliament for passing the bill.
Statutory bail for prisoners under trial signed into law
