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    Thursday 29 December 2016

    Safeguards for arrest and detention under Constitution of Pakistan

    Liberty of the subject is a sacred trust and nobody can be arrested or detained except in accordance with law. Article 10 of the constitution of Pakistan 1973 has provided safeguards to ensure that none is detained or arrested without any just cause. This article is divided into two distinct parts. Clauses (1) and (2) contemplate the case of persons who are arrested under the ordinary law.

    Arrest under ordinary law.----Here the constitution enjoins:
    1. No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may not be of the grounds for such arrest nor shall be denied the right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.

    2. Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before a Magistrate within a period of twenty four hours of such arrest, excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the nearest magistrate, and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period without the authority of a Magistrate.


    3. Nothing in clauses (1) and (2) shall apply to any person who in arrested or detained under any law providing for preventive detention.

    Preventive Detention
    According to clause (3), provisions contained in clauses (1) and (2) shall apply to any person who is arrested and detained under any law relating to preventive detention. In the case of a person arrested or detained under such law the conditions laid down are:

    1. No law providing for preventive detention shall be made except to deal with person acting in a manner prejudicial to the integrity, security or defense of Pakistan or any part thereof, or external affairs of Pakistan, or public order, or the maintenance of supplies or services, and no such law shall authorize the detention of a person for a period exceeding three months unless the appropriate review board has after affording him an opportunity of being heard in person, reviewed his case and reported, before the expiration of the said period, that there is, in its opinion, sufficient cause for the said period of three months unless the appropriate review board has reviewed his case and reported, before the expiration of each period of three months, that there is, in its opinion, sufficient causes for such detention.

    2. When any person is detained in pursuance of an order made under any law providing for preventive detention, the authority making the order shall as soon as may be but not later than one week from such detention, communicate to such person the grounds on which the order has been made, and shall afford him the earliest opportunity of making a representation against the order:
    Provided that the authority making any such order may refuse to disclose facts which such authority considers it to be against the public interest to disclose.

    3. The authority making the order shall furnish to the appropriate review board all documents relevant to the case unless a certificate, signed by a secretary to the government concerned, to the effect that it is not in the public interest to furnish any documents is produced.

    4. within a period of twenty-four months commencing on the days of his first detention is pursuance of an order made under law providing for preventive detention, no person shall be detained in pursuance of any such order for more than a total period of eight months in the case of a person detained for acting in a manner prejudicial to public order and twelve months in any other case
    Provided that this clause shall not apply to any person who is employed by, or works for, or acts on instructions received from, the enemy.

    5. The appropriate review board shall determine the place of detention of the person detained and fix a reasonable subsistence allowance for his family.

    Protection against retrospective punishment
    Article 12 of the constitution of Pakistan 1973 provided that no law shall authorize the punishment of a person in the following cases:
    i. For an act or omission that was not punishable by law at the time of the act or omission

    ii. For an offence by a penalty greater than or of a kind different from the penalty prescribed by law for that offence at the time the offence was committed. 
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