Under trial accused should not be jailed: NA body

ISLAMABAD, Mar 20 (APP):The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Wednesday recommended that under trial persons should not be jailed until their cases were decided by courts in order to lessen burden on jails.
Riaz Fityana, who chaired a committee meeting here, said an accused should be granted bail during the course of investigations and trial.
He said there should be no more pre-trial arrest and directed the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) to work on legislation to pay compensation to an accused if allegations against him were proved wrong.
He said policemen should visit accused’s residences in plain clothes for initial investigations into initial allegations against them. The accused should be allowed to attend the investigations with their lawyers, he added.
The committee directed the authorities concerned to review reviving of the erstwhile magistracy system.
The committee sought implementation status of judicial inquiries into the attack on Sri Lankan Cricket Team a decade ago and the brutal murder of some judicial officers in Sialkot jail a couple of years back. The Establishment Division was asked to submit a report about punishing any person or fixing responsibility of the two incidents.
Fityana said the committee would visit jails to have a first hand knowledge about the plight of prisoners. The committee would visit the District Jail, Lahore on March 25.The committee also sought a report about the implementation status of police reforms and expressed concern over thousands of cases pending in superior and lower judiciary. It recommended enhancing the number of judges.The committee expressed its dissatisfaction over the Minister for Law and Justice for not attending its meetings.
The committee members observed a one-minute silence to express solidarity with the families of over 120 Christians killed in a terror attack in Nigeria.
LJCP Secretary Dr Muhammad Raheem Awan briefed the committee about the performance of the commission. The committee directed the secretary to submit a detailed report of implementation status of its reports presented so far.
Members of the National Assembly Atta Ullah, Muhammad Farooq Azam Malik, Malik Ehsan Ullah Tiwana, Agha Hassan Baloch, Sher Ali Arbab, Ms Shunila Ruth, Rana Sana Ullah Khan, Chaudhry Mehmood Bashir Virk, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Syed Hussain Tariq, Ms Aliya Kamran and Ms Nafisa Shah attended the meeting.