July 23, 2007	Monday	Rajab 07, 1428

KASUR, July 22: A senior investigation officer of police has pointed a finger at the prosecution branch for interfering in investigators’ job.

Superintendent of police (investigation) Syed Ali Mohsin said this while talking to reporters on Sunday. The Punjab Criminal Prosecution Service will be formally launched on Monday (today).

Mr Mohsin alleged that the prosecution staff had tried to influence investigators to declare an innocent as guilty and vice versa. He cited case No 948 with A-Division police station, in which police booked two accused for a murder and after a thorough investigation found one guilty and the other innocent. But the case could not be concluded due to the intervention of the prosecution branch which insisted that both be declared murderers.

He also cited case No 19 at Mustafabad police station, in which three accused were nominated in a murder case. The investigating officer found two innocent and one guilty but the prosecutors insisted on declaring all the three guilty. The police officer said the prosecution branch wanted to show that the old magisterial system was the best suited to the Pakistani society.

Mr Mohsin said that the duty of the prosecution was to remove technical lacunas and loopholes from a case and not to influence the investigators. He added there were rulings of the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court that no agency could interfere in investigation which was the exclusive domain of the police. He alleged the quality of investigation as well as the rate of conviction had declined due to such external factors. He said that due to low conviction rate, crimes had increased in the district and the police was held accountable for that.

According to him, the prosecution deputy superintendents of police and legal inspectors were delivering relatively better.

STRIKE: Thousands of powerloom workers continued their strike in the city against low wages. They observed strike against millers while about 1,000 power loom units in the city have been shut.