The monitoring judge of anti-terrorism courts (ATC) for Sindh, Justice Amir Hani Muslim on Saturday directed the provincial government to immediately take steps for establishing a laboratory that can determine the nature of substance in explosives material cases.
While chairing a meeting in Supreme Court of Pakistan’s Karachi registry, Justice Amir Hani Muslim was apprised by the prosecutor general that there was no laboratory in Sindh which can determine the nature of explosive material. In absence of the laboratory, matters are being relied on the reports of bomb disposal unit which is not admissible in evidence.
In the meeting, it was noticed that a number of explosive material cases were being tried in ATCs. “In order to convict an accused, the law requires a laboratory report to be produced reflecting that the material, which was recovered from accused, was explosive in nature.”
The chair, therefore, directed the chief secretary to take immediate steps for establishing a laboratory so that the cases in ATC should not fail on that account.
There is poor infrastructure of chemical examiner laboratories which is not based on modern scientific system. Even the chemical examiner, who is head of such laboratory, does not have the required expertise nor qualification to hold such an office under the rules which fact was taken note of by the Supreme Court in a pending matter.
The chair directed the chief secretary to ensure that the office of chemical examiner should be filled by a person having qualifications provided under the rules and the laboratory should be equipped with the modern technology as such reports have far-reaching effects on the criminal trial.
Justice Syed Muhammad Farooq Shah, ATC-I Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso, Prosecutor General Shahadat Awan and Deputy Secretary of Home Department Moula Bakhsh Shaikh were also present on the occasion.
