Dar hints at 100 amendments to CrPC

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the House in the Senate and Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that nearly 100 amendments to the about 150-year-old Code of Criminal Procedure were to be made for cheap and speedy justice to the common man.

“What we did today was to me a curtain-raiser, as our real and real contribution will be to improve CrPC and there is a great room for it,” he said while speaking after the House adopted the 26th Constitutional Amendment.

He informed the Senate that the government would try its utmost that all the parties give their input and contribute to the proposed amendments, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Dar, who is also the foreign minister, explained that the amendments would include ensuring early filing and hearing of an appeal or a writ and the courts would be time-bound to decide them.

On the constitutional amendment, he pointed out that while a constitutional bench will be established in the federal system, it has been made available in the Constitution for the provinces to simply pass a resolution in the legislature for setting up such forums, if and when they are ready and able to do so.

He noted that while there were stories based on assumptions, like the amendment being person-specific, the government’s allies and other parties worked with dedication for a consensus document. “For the 26th Constitutional Amendment, many working drafts were prepared,” he maintained.

The minister pointed out that it was perhaps for the first time that a constitutional amendment was tabled from the Senate.

In his opening remarks, after the approval of the constitutional amendment in the Senate, Dar said that today is a historic day and he congratulated everyone. He acknowledged the fact that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chairman Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari worked on it with great commitment.

The minister said that it was the unfinished agenda of Charter of Democracy that has been fulfilled, which was signed on May 14, 2006 and later almost all others, including Imran Khan, had endorsed it.