E-Criminal Justice System to be introduced tomorrow

Islamabad: The Islamabad Capital Territory Police in a joint venture with the District Courts of Islamabad have introduced E-Criminal Justice System for the first time in the federal capital to achieve the target of speedy trials without the physical production of the Under Trial Prisoners (UTPs) the courts of law, the police sources said.

E-Criminal Justice System would be initiated implementation on Tuesday, June 14 this week. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad, Dr. Akbar Nasir, when contacted, termed the initiative as historic achievement of the epoch to expedite the hearings of the cases for speedy justice.

Measures for improvement of security regarding the production of Under Trial Prisoners (UTPs) through Video Link for attendance in District Courts and Standing Operating Procedures (SOP) have been taken by the concerned stakeholders.

The present judicial lock up (Bakhshi Khana), established within F-8 Court premises, was initially built to cater to 250 UTPs. With the passage of time, the number of UTPs increased manifold due to variations in the demographics and needs of the criminal justice system in Islamabad. Resultantly, the present Bakhshi Khana has become insufficient for keeping the large number of UTPs. Moreover, due to the weather conditions, there are unhealthy conditions within Bakhshi Khana, and UTPs protest for a spacious place as well as facilities i.e. fans, water facility, latrines, etc. Besides, there is always an apprehension of escape of UTPs during transportation. At times there are quarrels among the UTPs and others.

In order to resolve the issues, both the learned district and session judges east and west were requested to convene a meeting of the district coordination committee to take up the issue. On June 07,.2022, a meeting was convened in the office of District and Session Judge (West) Islamabad chaired by both Kamran Basharat Mufti, District and Session Judge (West) Islamabad, Atta Rabani District and Sessions Judge (East), while, Senior Civil Judge (West), Senior Civil Judge (East), Sohail Zafar Chattha, DIG (Operation), Muhammad Jamil, SSP (Operations), Farhat Abbas Kazmi SSP (Investigation), Superintendent of Prison Police, Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, Irfan Nazir, DC Islamabad, Assistant Commissioner Saddar and DSP (Legal) Islamabad, attended the meeting.

The meeting decided that the UTPs whose challans are yet to be submitted may be brought/presented before the court through a video link from Central Jail Adiala for attendance through e-court to save themselves from difficulties at Bakhshi Khana. This step will also save fuel consumption for transportation and this will also save deployment of the police force for this task and avoid risks of any eventually during transportation of a large number of UTPs. The rest of UTPs whose cases are fixed for evidence will be brought regularly so that their trial cases will be commended/continued without further delay.

SSP Logistics, HQ and SSP (Operations) have also been directed to do the needful regarding the production of UTPs whose cases are fixed for evidence well in time before the court so that their cases could be finalised without any delay.

The Senior Superintendent of Prison suggested a proposal of establishing 4/4 booths for UTPs for appearance through video link for East and West divisions and said that he has established 4 booths for each division which are ready for function and remaining will be established within ¾ days.

With the establishment of the above-said booths, UTPs production shall be digitally recorded and the UTPs will be saved from the problems at the existing Bakhshi Khana which cannot cater to large numbers of UTPs.