LAHORE, April 7: A federal monitoring committee comprising Asian Development Bank senior officials is arriving here in a day or two to assess the implementation of the ADB-funded access to justice programme in the Punjab.

The programme comprises jail reforms, creation of an independent prosecution service and consumer courts in every district to protect the interests of people. The province has started implementing jail reforms but not created the prosecution service and the consumer courts.

Sources said on Wednesday the team would meet different provincial secretaries, including those of law and home, and inquire about the implementation of the programme and any hurdles in its way.

The sources said the creation of the prosecution service was being handled by a ministerial committee under Law Minister Raja Basharat which has met once. It was expected to again meet in near future to decide whether the service would be placed under the law or the home department.

Another ministerial committee was handling the creation of the consumer courts. It had so far perused only nine articles of the proposed law for the courts, they said.

The committee comprised Industries Minister Ajmal Cheema, Law Minister Raja Basharat, Food Minister Chaudhry Iqbal, chief minister's adviser Mowahid Husain and secretaries of the industries, law and home departments. The committee was large and not all members had been attending its meetings because of their pre-occupation, the sources said.