Over six months have passed since the promulgation of the ‘Sindh Witness Protection Act 2013′ but the law has yet to be implemented in the province.In September 2013, the Sindh government had boasted to be the first province to have drafted the ‘extraordinary’ law. Its implementation, or lack thereof, has however, put a question mark on the performance of the government. The key impediment in the execution of the law has been the indifferent attitude of the government officials and the bureaucrats who have yet to form the ‘witness protection advisory board’. The board is meant to exercise the law and look after the witness protection policies. The murder of the eyewitness in the Sabeen Mahmud case has once again underscored the urgent need for a witness protection programme. Ghulam Abbas was working as a part-time driver for Ms Mahmud, the well-known rights activist, and was present at the scene when she was gunned down in Karachi on April 24. Although it has not yet been confirmed whether the two murders are connected, police have disclosed that during the trial of those accused of Ms Mahmud’s assassination, the slain driver had identified some of the men, a fact that increases the likelihood of precisely such a link. The police have described the elimination of Mr Abbas as a major setback in a sensitive investigation. He is reported to have already provided key evidence — but will now not be able to present it in court. There are few witnesses in the case. Ms Mahmud’s mother, also present in the car, was herself hit by bullets. The motives behind Mr Abbas’s killing are being investigated with the possibility of a personal enmity also raised. But the fact remains the same: a key witness in a murder case that shook the country has been prevented from telling his story. As a result, it will become harder to learn quite why a young woman, willing to stand up for the rights of others, was shot down in this fashion. The same pattern of killing key witnesses has been seen in other cases before this. The absence of witnesses, of course, makes convictions far harder, perhaps even impossible. It has become quite the norm to criticise the judiciary when criminals are acquitted, but it is not right to ignore that courts and judges can only go by what evidence is produced before them, and in any hearing, the testimony of witnesses is critical. The case of Wali Khan Babar illustrates the gravity of the threat. Six witnesses to the murder of the young journalist in 2011 were themselves eliminated one after another over the course of less than two years. According to a study carried out by the Punjab police, more than 80pc of terrorism cases resulted in the acquittal of the accused because witnesses either retracted their testimony or refused to appear in court because of intimidation by criminals.
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