There is rising impression in the Pakistan that the accused get scot free from the Courts. This impression is not in vacuum. There are factors contributing to it. This impression finds support too from the low conviction rate in our country. In Pakistan, the conviction rate is 8.66%, while the conviction rate in India is 37.4%, in England (Crown Court) 90%, and in Japan, it is 99.9%. These figures tend to show that in Pakistan, the Justice prevails, when 91% of the accused persons, after facing the agony of trial, are acquitted by the courts. It not only encourages a criminal to dare repeat the crime, but also results in loss of faith of the victim, his family and society at large, over the Criminal Justice System of Pakistan. The low conviction rate is directly proportional to the wrongs committed during investigation, and indirectly with defective prosecution in Pakistan. However, blaming the courts for acquittal of the accused is not justifiable. The courts are deciding the cases on basis of whatever evidence and material is produced before them, which is collected by the investigating agencies. The courts are not meant for recording convictions only, but for the dispensation of even-handed justice. If the investigation is defective, the prosecution is lethargic, if there is scanty evidence, if witnesses turn hostile, whether the court is left with any other option except to give accused the benefit of doubt. The law requires proof beyond any reasonable doubt. This probative value of high degree is not possible unless the evidence is collected by the agency without leaving anything unturned. Given this backdrop, in this article, we have tried to discuss the impact of defective investigation and defective prosecution on trial. The article is also aimed at finding out as to what can be done for improving the current situation. The conclusion would show that the courts cannot be blamed for low conviction rate when the police, prosecutors and executive authorities fail to discharge their duty.
This research aims to discuss how multinational pharmaceutical companies have responded to the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which would ideally be translated into supplying vaccines in a timely and efficient manner to fight against that emergency. The theoretical approach relies upon the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), implying enterprises are supposed to achieve a balance of economic, social, and environmental deliverables while, at the same time, addressing the expectations of both shareholders and stakeholders. The method consists of scrutinizing secondary data—mainly figures of the vaccines provided by the different companies— and qualitative content analysis of the actions they state they have taken, which have been conveyed in press releases and annual reports. The findings show that major corporations have primarily considered the financial aspects of CSR, leaving out the social component they claim to address in their mission statements. Our critical position is that millions of lives could have been saved and relevant economic downturn avoided, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, had there been true practice and implementation of the CSR principles on the pharmaceutical company part.
This paper analyzes the loopholes and faults in the Criminal Justice System of Pakistan (CJSP), which is under rising criticism for its ineffectiveness and has been ranked at 108th of the total 139 countries of the world in the Rule of Law Index, 2021. The poor and defective investigation by the police, without any effective prosecutorial or judicial supervision over the process of investigation, is mainly responsible for crippling the CJSP adversarial system, which needs to be reformed to make it effective. A comparative analysis will show that Latin American countries such as Chile, Argentina, México and Colombia have moved from an inquisitorial to an accusatorial system, claiming that this is the best way to protect fundamental rights and to reduce the ever-increasing impunity in these countries. By applying a comparative approach, it shows that both inquisitorial and adversarial system of justice have systematic weaknesses and strengths in their composition. This certainly has motivated the International Criminal Court (ICC), China, Spain, Italy and many other countries to develop an Adquisitorial System-mixed inquisitorial/adversarial system- to get the benefit of best practices of both the systems. The Pakistan case, in relation to the Latin American one, shows that what is important is not to analyze the system in the abstract, but to determine which one solves in a better way the problem a judicial system has: in Pakistan, law and order, given the limitations of police action; in Latin America, the protection of fundamental rights during the criminal process. The case in Pakistan shows that the problems the judicial system is facing can be solved by appealing to a combination of inquisitorial and accusatorial features. This paper concludes suggesting that the existing investigation phase of the CJSP should be transformed, by legal transplant, to an inquisitorial pre-trial investigation process, with necessary modifications, led by the investigative judge while the trial phase remains to be adversarial.
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