Around 45 terrorism cases await hearings in an anti-terrorism court as no judge has been appointed so far to replace Anti-Terrorism Court No 1 Judge Habibur Rehman who was transferred from Lahore to Gujrat on April 30, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The cases include the ISI building suicide attack, Qadiani worship place attack and the GPO Chowk bomb blast.
At the time of Habib’s transfer, there were 40 cases pending in the court while five new cases were submitted after his transfer. A court without its judge shows that the government is not serious about convicting terrorists.
An unnecessary delay in the appointment of a new judge to an anti-terrorism court will only benefit the suspects.
According to the law, a suspect can get bail if his trial is not concluded within two years. At the last year’s start, four anti-terrorism courts were working in Lahore. On July 26, 2010, the Home Department asked the Punjab government to reshuffle the courts along with their staff especially in those districts where anti-terrorism courts had not been established.
In the light of the said notification, anti-terrorism courts no III and IV from Lahore were transferred to Bahawalpur and Faisalabad respectively, and one judge out of the two was transferred on April 30, 2011, without the provision of a replacement, causing unnecessary delays in the case proceedings.
Besides, the Punjab government has not appointed a prosecutor general over the last several months, which speaks volumes for its lack of seriousness to deal with terrorism cases.
