Grade 20 officer to 'help' courts with cases that need 'extraordinary protection'
Picture a death sentence with nobody’s name on it. The prosecutor is anonymous. The witnesses are just listed as numbers. The man sitting beside you might be your lawyer, he might not, but you’re not allowed to ask. The file on your case is locked away. Your appeal takes place in the same kafkaesque obscurity. Now imagine that this is how the courts will work after the Punjab Assembly passes this method into law on Monday.
Unfortunately, I do not have to trouble my imagination as this matter is very real to me. I sit on the Punjab Opposition benches where reading what the government tables is more or less the whole job. So this is what I’ve been reading.
The Treasury will tell you the Anti-Terrorism (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2026 is about protecting judges and witnesses. Alright. Judges in this province have been threatened as have prosecutors. Witnesses get shot at, bought up and scared off. Every word of this is true and I’ll say so from the floor. My problem is what the Treasury has written underneath the title of the would-be law.
A Bill further to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 (Insertion of Section 21AAA: Trial, inquiry and judicial proceedings of special security cases).Briefly, the Punjab government wants to make major changes to the anti-terrorism law so terrorism cases can be tried confidentially. This would mean no one would know the identities of the judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers and witnesses. Last week, Opposition lawmaker Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan stood up to object, arguing that this was against the constitution as there should be open and fair trials for people accused in terrorism cases. The bill was put off for a vote scheduled Monday.
