KARACHI (Reuters) - Already struggling to cope with hundreds of al Qaeda and homegrown militant cases, Pakistan's courts risk being swamped by the latest mass detentions unless the authorities unclog an easily manipulated appeal system.
A government crackdown in the past two weeks has netted some 600 militants, Islamist activists and firebrand preachers.
Over half the cases could fall under the ambit of an anti-terrorism law, while others will involve charges such as the misuse of loudspeakers in mosques.
President Pervez Musharraf's war on terrorism is already bogged down in his country's courts. Jails are crammed with militants staving off justice through an overloaded appeal system, and who are possibly in touch with their networks.
"I believe justice hurried is justice buried. But trials of criminals are now taking years," said Qazi Mohammad Jameel, a retired high court judge and now president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. "There is a need to expedite cases, including terrorist-related ones."
There is a shortage of judges, a problem Federal Law Minister Wasi Zafar said is being addressed. But observers say those brave enough to preside in cases involving militants need far more protection.
"Both issues are impeding the process of dealing with terrorist cases," says Samina Ahmed, who heads the Brussels-based International Crisis Group in Pakistan.
Musharraf, stung by depictions of Pakistan as a breeding ground for terrorists following deadly bomb blasts in London and Egypt's Red Sea, has vowed to turn detentions into convictions.
"Now we will try every wrongdoer, every extremist and militant under the Anti-Terrorism Law," Musharraf told journalists in Lahore last week, referring to a law that allows suspects to be held for a year without being charged.
Source For Full Article : http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-07-31T022655Z_01_N30490133_RTRIDST_0_INTERNATIONAL-SECURITY-PAKISTAN-COURTS-DC.XML
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