Govt to introduce reforms in criminal justice system

The federal cabinet on Tuesday made a landmark decision to introduce comprehensive reforms in the obsolete and outdated criminal justice system in the country in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision for provision of timely and inexpensive justice.

Briefing the media about decisions of the Federal Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said Minister for Law and Justice Farough Naseem gave the cabinet a detailed briefing on the proposed law, adding, these reforms would entirely change the criminal justice system.

Fawad said the reforms would fulfil Prime Minister Imran Khan's agenda of improvement in the criminal justice system to ensure timely justice. He said the focus of reforms would be inexpensive and timely provision of justice besides ending delay in trial and hurdles in registration of First Information Report (FIR). He said now the matter would be discussed in the Cabinet Committee on Law and Justice and after that it would be implemented.

He said the cabinet rejected the proposal of giving 10 percent adhoc relief to Chairman and Deputy chairman Senate, Speaker and Deputy speaker National Assembly and members of Senate and National Assembly in their salaries.

He said the cabinet had also rejected an allowance traditionally given to members of the federal cabinet. The minister said the decision was part of the austerity measures taken by the incumbent government from day one to reduce burden on the national exchequer.

He said the decision was meant to show the nation that people in corridors of power were setting an example for other people to save national kitty. He said the Prime Minister House has made big saving in its expenditure as part of the PM's authority drive and the National Assembly secretariat has returned Rs 1.54 billion to the government.

The cabinet, he said, was informed that the cabinet allowed the Federal Board of Revenue to hire services for making its data more secure following a cyber attack on August 14 this year. Fawad said hackers attacked the website of Federal Board of Revenue, however most of its data remained safe and an operational emergency was declared to secure its data.

He said the cabinet was informed that this year about a million cyberattacks were made on Pakistani websites which were thwarted by National Telecom Company. It was informed that a comprehensive framework of cyber security was in place which was being further strengthened.