Islamabad, September 16, 2021 (PPI-OT):The first meeting of the National Action Plan Implementation Committee was held under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Dr. Muhammad Farogh Naseem. The meeting was attended by representatives of Home Departments of the provinces and senior officials of other concerned departments, Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Barrister Maleeka Ali Bokhari was also present in the meeting.
The Additional Secretary, Ministry of Interior, apprised the committee that the Ministry of Law is the first Ministry to convene a meeting on the implementation of the National Action Plan. He further added that the Prime Minister approved the revised National Action Plan and approved the formation of four implementation committees, one of which is headed by the Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Farogh Naseem.
Federal Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem has said that the most difficult task assigned to the Law Ministry with regard to National Action Plan was to reform the criminal law, which we have already done. He said that criminal law is technically a subject of Interior Ministry, but the Law Ministry had worked on it.
He said that in November last year, the Prime Minister had asked him to make an anti-rape law which we made and worked day and night on it. The anti-rape law is being praised. The Lahore High Court has praised this law and this law is also being praised by the European countries. The law has been passed by the National Assembly and will be presented in a joint session.
The Federal Minister said that if this law is properly implemented, the incidents of rape will be reduced completely. Federal Minister has said that in February 2021, the Prime Minister asked him to draft a reforms on criminal law. It took 26 years in our neighbouring country to draft laws pertaining to criminal reforms, but we worked hard on this law and sent the first draft to the Prime Minister in June 2021 about 650 amendments were proposed.
These laws include the Code of Criminal Procedure, Pakistan Penal Code, Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, Control of Narcotics Act, Railways Act, The Pakistan Prisons Rules, Islamabad Capital Territory Criminal Prosecution Service and The Islamabad Capital Territory Forensic Science Agency Act.
In this regard opinions were sought from Provincial Police, Islamabad Police, Prosecutors General and Prosecution Departments, consultations were also held with lawyers, NGOs, human rights lawyers, Home Secretaries of the provinces and representatives of the Attorney General’s office, all Provincial Secretaries for Law and members of the Advocate General’s Office of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab were also consulted. Relevant reports of the Law and Justice Commission were also scrutinized from 1981 while making these amendments.
These amendments will introduce an efficient and expeditious procedure for filing FIRs and will significantly reduce the number of pending cases, the time to pursue cases will be greatly reduced, and Police abuse with the public will be eradicated.
These amendments will enable cases to be brought to a transparent conclusion, evidence gathering will be further improved and expedited modern tools would be used to deliver justice. He said that these amendments will be submitted to CCLC in next two weeks. The Federal Minister further said that the substantial work to be done by this committee has already been done by the Ministry of Law.
Federal Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem directed the Counter-Terrorism Department to provide details of counter terrorism related cases which are pending. The Federal Minister said that we want to enact such legislation so that even the most powerful could not escape from the grip of the law and even the weakest class could get full justice. The Federal Minister said that this committee is very powerful and as a Chairman I reiterate my commitment that I will discharge my responsibilities in the best possible and diligent manner.
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