KARACHI: The provincial law department on Friday removed law officers hired by the government to represent Rangers in around 800 cases in courts.

The Rangers currently have eight special public prosecutors (SPPs), who had been hired on a contractual basis by the Sindh government in 2013 to plead cases registered during the ongoing targeted operation in the city.

The Sindh prosecutor general issued a circular, directing all the district public prosecutors and assistant prosecutors general posted in antiterrorism courts/special courts in Karachi division to defend the cases on behalf of the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh in place of SPPs appointed on behalf of the paramilitary force in compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders.

A Rangers prosecutor says the move is aimed at saving people with political connections

Prosecutor General Ayaz Tunio told Dawn that the circular was issued in line with a letter received from the provincial home department, wherein his department was asked to ensure the district public prosecutors and assistant prosecutors general would plead the cases in case the SPPs were not appearing on behalf of the Rangers.

They would not appear in those cases in which the Rangers’ prosecutors were already appearing, he said.

But Sajid Mehboob Sheikh, the head of the Rangers’ prosecution team, told Dawn that the prosecutor general had no authority to suspend a notification of the chief minister through which eight SPPs were hired by the Sindh government to plead the cases of the paramilitary force in courts.

He alleged that the move was aimed at saving the people — including those arrested in the latest crackdown in Sindh — with political connections from prosecution.

Mr Sheikh said they had eight law officers, pleading around 800 cases, including six to eight high-profile cases such as the Baldia factory fire case.

Referring to a 2017 judgement of the Supreme Court that directed the attorney general of Pakistan and the Sindh advocate general to represent the federal and provincial governments in court instead of engaging private counsel, he claimed that the order was not applicable to Rangers’ law officers.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2018