ISLAMABAD: The state’s ability to successfully prosecute criminals and terrorists was dealt another blow when 150 prosecutors from Punjab quit their jobs to become part of the lower judiciary.

During the last week, the Lahore High Court (LHC) announced the results of tests conducted for 378 posts of civil judges in the subordinate judiciary. As many as 150 of the successful candidates belonged to the Punjab prosecution.

A couple of months ago, 100 prosecutors had also left their jobs to become civil judges.

With these two waves of ‘desertions’, there would be around 500 prosecutors available with the provincial prosecution department against the sanctioned strength of over 1,200, sources told Dawn.

150 prosecutors quit to join lower judiciary leaving behind only 500 against sanctioned posts of 1,200

In addition to the civil judges, scores of prosecutors have also applied for the posts of additional district and sessions judges. The LHC is scheduled to hold the exam for the ADSJ posts from August 1.

Two prosecutors of the Punjab government working in the Anti-Terrorism Courts Rawalpindi also obtained leave for participating in the exams for the ADSJ posts.

Noor Khan, one of the prosecutors, was dealing with cases registered under the Protection of Pakistan Act (PoPA). He was assigned the job to deal with the PoPA cases registered in the districts of Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Attock and Jhelum. He is pursuing the kidnapping case of a PML-N member Punjab Assembly, killing of five people, including two army officers near Fatehjang and a cracker blast outside a restaurant in Rawalpindi.

The other prosecutor, Imran Qaiser, is attached with the ATC-II in Rawalpindi. In both the courts, cases pending for adjudication included the Benazir Bhutto murder case, Sabra Bibi murder case in which Imtiaz alias Taji Khokhar is facing trial, the Nato containers attack case and trial of the those who allegedly planed attacks on sensitive installations in Rawalpindi.

A prosecutor on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that the prosecution department appeared to become a nursery for the subordinate judiciary.

He said the prosecutors were leaving their jobs because they were getting very little salary as compared to the civil judges.

He said both the prosecutors and the civil judges were in BPS-17 but the monthly salary of a prosecutor was Rs33,000 compared to the Rs82,000 of a civil judge.

In addition, the prosecutor faces direct threats from criminals and terrorists during the trial proceedings, he said.

“In case a court acquits an accused, the high-ups hold the prosecutor responsible and the poor prosecutor has to face inquiries even months after the release of the accused,” he said, adding nobody could ask the judge as to why he released the suspects.

He claimed that during the last a couple of months, 20 out of over 250 prosecutors who joined the subordinate judiciary were from the district prosecution Rawalpindi.

Another prosecutor, Kaleemullah Tarrar, added: “The authorities are expecting from us better results despite the fact that we are given very meager salaries.” He said a prosecutor earns just over Rs1,000 per day whereas the counsel for a criminal and terror suspect earns in millions.

According to him, unless there is a balance between the salaries of judges, defence counsel and the prosecutors, the criminal justice system would not be able to achieve the desired results.

When contacted, Sheikh Waqar, the head of the district prosecution Rawalpindi, said there was no law under which the prosecutors could be stopped from leaving their jobs.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2015

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