Rights of the Accused in the Legal System of Pakistan: A Legal Analysis

Abstract

This paper focuses on the rights of accused that are available to him under Pakistani legal system. Accused is often presumed to be an offender before trial which eventually results into snatching away his rights that he ought to have under the law. Pakistani law grants many rights, protections, liberties and remedies to an accused. In this paper rights of the accused have been divided into four prominent categories i.e. pre- trial rights, during trial rights, post-trial rights and exceptional rights. Pakistan being an Islamic state should work for the actual enforcement of the rights that can be availed by an accused under the law because he needs help to get rid of the probable false accusations made against him. This should also be done by the state in order to improve the life of the general public and to meet the ends of justice because denial of the basic rights to an accused may expose him to punishment for a crime that he might not have committed as he is actually innocent in the eyes of law and innocent people cannot be punished.