APROPOS the report (Jan 3) stating that the Lahore Police has added section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act to the FIR in the killing of a police constable owing to reckless driving three days earlier.
The report states that two passengers riding in the car had also been arrested.
Earlier the police had arrested the driver for `causing death without intention to cause harm by rash and negligent driving` Ihave strongreservations on adding terrorism charges and the arrest of the persons sitting on the passenger seats.
The arrests are not only utterly illogical but patently illegal. It is a mockery of law.
In traffic offences murder charges can be added onlyifitis proved that the driver was running the vehicle so recklessly that the killing of the victim of an accident would be the most likely consequence. But how could it become an act of terrorism? Earlier the Lahore Police had charged Ayesha Ahad, the estranged wife of Hamza Sharif, pressing her claim, with terrorism. The police must draw the line somewhere.
How it could be legal to arrest the persons sitting on passenger seats for the crime of the driver? In traffic cases the liability for reckless driving is of the driver and not of those accompanying the driver.
Can we imagine all bus passengers sitting in a bus being arrested if its driver is recl(less? A police officer derives all powers from the law i.e. The Code of Criminal Procedure and cannot arrogate to himself any powers outside its realm. If he does so, he is himself is in violation of the law.
