ISLAMABAD: Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa, who took charge after Justice Saqib Nisar went on his official foreign tour, on Friday observed that justice cannot be dispensed if fake witnesses and false testimonies are presented before the court.
A three-member bench, headed by the acting CJP, heard the case pertaining to convicts Arshad and Rizwan who murdered Haji Ahmad Khan in Sahiwal in 2009. The trial court holding proceedings gave the accused death sentences, while the high court gave them life-imprisonment.
However, the top court dismissed the pleas pertaining to the extension in life-sentences of both convicts. The court ruled that the high court’s life sentence still stands.
Justice Khosa remarked. “False witnesses should be sent to jail directly.”
“Should we be perceiving false witnesses as true? False testimonies are made despite being under oath, and then justice is demanded through false means,” he added
The acting CJP observed that in seven of Punjab’s districts, trials reach conclusions in three days, but the court system has become so paralysed that statements to be recorded under 342 of the CrPC take 15 days to complete.
“Previously, judgments and verdicts would be one or two pages long, and now verdicts of 100 and 200 pages come out,” Justice Khosa remarked. “However, we still don’t understand them,” advocate Latif Khosa responded.
Taking a jibe at media reports claiming Maryam Nawaz read out full stops and commas during her statement in the accountability court, Latif Khosa said, “Today, people give excessive importance to commas and full-stops also.”
