ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali said on Tuesday that Pakistan was not passing through a normal time as the country was facing aggression from so many corners.

`These are exceptional circumstances, therefore, exceptional measures have to be taken by the state for proper dispensation of justice,`observed the chief justice while heading a fivejudge bench that has taken up a set of appeals against convictions, including death sentences, by military courts.The observation came when Advocate Ahmed Raza Qasuri representing Fazle Ghaffar regretted that the trial court in its judgements deleted the names of presiding officers, prosecutors and witnesses.

At this the chief justice regretted that in a number of cases it had been observed that the accused had been nominated in 112 offences, including murder, kidnapping and terrorism, but not a single witness ever appeared to depose in court.

These were exceptional circumstances where the state had to take exceptional measures for proper dispensation of justice, the chief justicesaid, adding that in foreign countries the names of presiding judges and witnesses were changed in sensitive cases. Even witnesses were not required to appearin court,rather sat behind curtains.

The chief justice observed that a number of schemes had been introduced in those countries where witnesses were allowed to migrate to other countries only to keep them protected and unharmed, but in Pakistan despite the introduction of protection programmes for witnesses and judges, `we saw Additional Sessions Judge Tahir Khan Niazi gunned down in Rawalpindi in August last year`.