Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa has repeated been highlighting a major flaw in the criminal justice system: pervasive use of false testimonies by fake witnesses. In three recent cases that came up before the apex court, the accused had been handed extreme punishment by trial courts on the basis of false witness accounts. While hearing the latest case on Friday at the head of a two-member bench, the CJ rejected an appeal against the acquittal of a murder accused, declaring that "false witnesses will soon be behind the bars and the entire system will be back on the right track as soon as a couple of perjurers are sentenced to life in prison." A few days earlier, the court had released another man whom a magistrate had handed death sentence - later converted into life imprisonment by the Lahore High Court. He received relief after 10 years of imprisonment - an unsavoury reminder of the glacial speed at which the justice system moves in this country. The court also summoned the magistrate concerned for relying on false evidence for the conviction and conducting an identification parade without fulfilling legal requirements. Before that, while rejecting a review appeal against Asia Bibi's exoneration, the chief adjudicator had expressed the lament that both the lower courts and the Lahore High Court had overlooked discrepancies in the witnesses' statements.
To say the least, it is unfortunate that perjury-lying under oath - is a bane of our justice system. False testimony is excusable in a case where the reason is confusion or bad memory, but not when it from a willful intent to falsify facts, destroying lives. It is a grave crime. Which is why under the law, perjury in death penalty cases is punishable with life imprisonment. Yet it remains ignored. As the above three cases show, the lower courts routinely give guilty verdicts either due to lack of competence to note inconsistencies in witness accounts, or pressure from influential individuals/groups, or simply out of a desire to prove efficiency. Innocent people are punished for crimes they never committed. Not long ago, the apex court issued release orders for two brothers accused of murder, only to find they had already been executed. In another similar case, it turned out that a murder accused acquitted by the apex court had died after languishing in jail for several years. There surely are countless other innocent people suffering in jails for crimes they had nothing to do with.
No less significant element in this sordid practice is the unscrupulous and unprofessional role played by the police. More often than not, investigating agencies make up for their failure or reluctance to catch the real culprits by forging evidence through phony witnesses - an abhorrent practice that must come to an end. Hopefully, things will change for the better when the Police Reforms Committee's recommendations, currently under judicial and government review, are implemented. Needless to say, also in order is a comprehensive reform of the judicial system.