LAHORE: The Punjab government has further amended the Punjab Criminal Prosecution Service Act 2006 through an ordinance, requiring for the first time judges to give due consideration to the advice of prosecutors regarding charging, and authorising the latter to seek appropriate sentences.

It also allows two-year extension in the service term of the prosecutor.

The ordinance allows prosecutors to submit, in writing, to the magistrate or the court, the result of his or her assessment as to the available evidence and applicability of offences against all or any of the accused as per facts and circumstances of the case. And, it says, the magistrate or the court shall give due consideration to such submission.

It further says that if an accused pleads guilty or, as the case may be, at the time the prosecutor sums up the case, the prosecutor shall propose to the magistrate or the court the punishment which, in his opinion, the accused should be awarded.

The ordinance provides for that the prosecutor general shall hold office for a term of three years but the government may, after evaluation of his or her performance in the prescribed manner, extend that term for a further period of two years.

The government may, in the prescribed manner, again appoint for a non-extendable term of three years, the prosecutor general who has completed the term of five years.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2017