Federal Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid, who heads this Committee, told Business Reorder on Friday that the Committee has finalised its recommendations for legal reforms including giving special powers to Rangers. He said that the Committee would submit its recommendations to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the next couple of days.
Sources said the federal government has two options: one, to promulgate an ordinance; and two; to present the recommendations to Parliament for legislation. However, the sources said the government is leaning towards promulgating an ordinance to provide immediate legal cover to extending special powers to Rangers during the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi. Sources said that during the period of the ordinance the government would place a bill in the parliament for legislation.
Former Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed told Business Recorder that there is a dire need for amendments in the law to provide full protection to witnesses and judges. He said this could be achieved by placing witnesses and judges behind a screen during the hearing of cases. He said that altering the voice of witnesses and judges through latest technology to ensure that no one can indentify their voice should also be considered. He said this practice was successful in Italy when the country launched a targeted operation against powerful mafia. Other countries have successfully followed suit including several countries in South America. He added that a charge sheet should also not identify witnesses.
A senior official of police desiring not to be named said that there is a dire need to amend the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to establish a strong witness protection programme and ensure protection of witnesses, investigators, prosecutors and judges in major criminal cases and particularly terrorism-related cases. Witnesses are reluctant to risk their lives by testifying in major criminal cases in the absence of witness protection law in the country, he said.
He said that government needs to prepare a strong witness protection programme on an urgent basis, if they want to control law and order situation in Karachi as well as across the country. "The government needs to take special measures for establishment of separate wings for witness protection in police investigation branches," he added. The official said that there were 23 witnesses in the brutal murder of journalist Wali Khan Babar in Karachi in January 2011. Only six took the risk of testifying and all those witnesses were gunned down. Witnesses in other high-profile terrorism cases have been similarly killed, according to him.