Powers and Practices of Courts An Analysis of Granting Bail in Pakistan

Abstract

The procedure of law in order to decide the bail applications either prearrest or post arrest is well defined during the last decade by many judges of high court and Supreme Court. And one of the settled rules is that the court needs to make tentative assessment of available facts and story of FIR at the bail stage rather than the deeper assessment. In criminal justice system it is the need of time to review the law related to the surety bond because bail does not mean that the court of law will not fulfill the remaining procedure. Bail in the matter of prearrest is the discretion of the court and bail in the matter of post arrest is matter of right rather than discretion. In this context, this paper analyses powers and practices of Courts for granting Bail in Pakistan. It argues that Courts in Pakistan has discretionary powers in some cases for granting Bail. However, such exercise should be done in a prescribed manner and in due course.