Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has, reportedly expressed serious concern over slow progress in the implementation of Protection of Pakistan Ordinance and asked for revamping of the entire criminal justice system well-informed sources told Business Recorder. He gave these remarks while presiding over a cabinet meeting during the last week of February 2014.
"Why progress on implementation of Protection of Pakistan Ordinance is slow? Salient features of the Ordinance should be made part of the newly drafted national internal security policy. There is a need to revamp the whole criminal justice system, starting from the arrest of an individual to prison and protection system and a mechanism for the appointment of judges," the sources quoted Prime Minister as saying at that meeting.
He directed that high security prisons should be given top priority for which Interior Ministry should take the lead. He referred to the statement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan in which he had stated that out of ten arrests in Karachi only 175 challans had been presented in courts.
The Prime Minister stated that a very few hardened criminals had been shifted from Karachi to interior Sindh. He also stated that no progress had been made on the trial of accused through video links, adding that there was a need for monitoring progress in the cases. In addition, he stated that judges should now be nominated for the courts envisaged under the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance. He desired to make special efforts for awareness of the provincial governments and to take them on board for expeditious implementation of the Ordinance.
A suggestion came from one of the Federal Ministers that national internal security policy should be shared with the National Defence University (NDU) for debate and further refinement. The Prime Minister appreciated the proposal. Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar maintained that security is crucial for economic development. He stated that fiscal space was limited with the federal government as 57.5 per cent of the revenue collection is earmarked for the provinces. In the last seven months, a growth of 17 per cent was recorded in the generation of revenue which was proportionately transferred to the provinces. Since provinces have both the resources and capacity to spend, they should be encouraged to share the expenditure on the counter terrorism effort. Law and order being a provincial subject also demands their major contribution to the effort.
Minister for Interior added that an additional amount of Rs 2 billion is allocated every year to the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for efforts against war on terror, of which Rs 1 billion have already been released in the current financial year. The provinces should be taken on board as ownership of the provinces was required for the security policy.
The issue of bringing reforms in FATA also came up for discussion in the meeting. It was observed that there was a need to bring FATA into mainstream and integrate it with the whole of the country. For this purpose, it is necessary to introduce reforms. It was proposed that local government system be introduced in FATA to give a voice to the people of the area. The political future of FATA needs attention.
The mapping of Madrasahs throughout the country was also suggested. Though Auqaf is a devolved subject, the provincial Auqaf Departments do not possess complete records. There is a need for legislation in this regard. Some of the Cabinet members stressed the need to identify foreign funding of Madrassahs. It was suggested that there should be a system to regulate the foreign funding being obtained by NGOs.
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