PESHAWAR: Notification confuses public prosecutors
BY Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, April 5: Confusion prevails among public prosecutors regarding their future status after a recent notification attached them with the provincial law department in civil cases.
It is learnt that the public prosecutors are not sure whether they would function under the provincial home department or their services would be handed over to the law department.
A notification was issued by the NWFP chief secretary Ijaz Qureshi on March 17 through which the directorate of prosecution was detached from the law department and was attached with the home and tribal affairs department.
However, some ambiguity was left as in the notification it was mentioned that the government pleaders would continue to work under the law department in civil cases. By virtue of their posts, the public prosecutors are also government pleaders.
Sources in the law department said that about 171 public prosecutors have been performing duties in the province which include 31 public prosecutors, 77 additional public prosecutors, 22 deputy public prosecutors and 41 assistant public prosecutors.
Till now these prosecutors have been defending the government in both criminal and civil cases. It is learnt that the provincial law department has expressed the desire to retain 56 public prosecutors for the purpose of conducting civil cases.
Some of the prosecutors informed that the serving prosecutors were already less than the required number and in some districts a single prosecutor had to look after five or six courts. They added that if 56 serving prosecutors were posted to the law department it would further aggravate the situation.
The prosecutors claimed that it was in their job description to defend the government in civil cases and instead of assigning separate prosecutors to the law department it would be appropriate for the public prosecutors to continue with both categories of cases.
Keeping separate public pleaders for civil cases would be a burden on the provincial exchequer as the number of civil cases in which the provincial government was involved were very less and could be easily tackled by the existing prosecutors. Only in Peshawar 182 civil cases of provincial government's interest were pending, the prosecutors informed.
In past the prosecution served as a branch of the police department. On Jan 29, 2002, a notification was issued by the chief secretary through which the prosecution branch was separated from the police department. Through the same notification the establishment of the directorate of prosecution as an attached department of the law department was ordered.
In May 2002, the then solicitor Siddique Khattak prepared comments for the law department in which he recommended that as the administration of justice and constitution of courts was the subject of home department, therefore the office of prosecution could be managed and supervised in more efficient manner if it was attached with the home department.
