KARACHI, Feb 11: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad has stressed on an accelerated pace of disposing of criminal cases, saying that courts could succeed in providing timely justice to people only when cases were filed immediately and pursued strictly.

The governor was speaking at a high level-meeting held at the Governor’s House under his chairmanship here to review the steps towards activating the Criminal Prosecution Department.

Adviser on Home Waseem Akhtar, Adviser on Finance M.A. Jalil, Chief Secretary Fazlur Rehman, IGP Jehangir Mirza, Secretary Law Ghulam Nabi Shah, Special Secretary Javed Hanif and other senior officials attended the meeting.

The Provincial Secretary Prosecution, Mohammad Ishaq Lashari, apprised the governor of the department’s working and future plans.

Dr Ibad emphasised on appointing professional, hardworking and honest staff in order to overcome shortage of manpower, and suggested that services of the professionals available with the private sector could also be sought.

He said procedure of the FIR registration system needed further improvement.

He called for computerising the Prosecution Department and providing the relevant training to its staff. Timely production of prisoners before courts should also be ensured, he added.

The meeting was told that 250 more vehicles would be provided to police to facilitate production of prisoners before courts.

Mr Lashari told the meeting that in the past, conviction rate in Pakistan remained as low as five to 11 per cent, mainly because of faulty investigation and ineffective prosecution.

He said that in 2003, the conviction rate in Pakistan stood at 11.66 per cent whereas in India, it was 37.4 per cent, in Africa 39 per cent and in Britain 98 per cent.

He said that the government had initiated the ‘Access to Justice Programme’ under a $350 million project in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank in 2001 after promulgation of the Sindh Prosecution Service Ordinance to form a separate department of prosecution.

The Prosecution Section has been separated from Ministry of Law and prosecution services would now be performed under the prosecutor general, he said, adding that district public prosecutor (DPP) and deputy/assistant DPPs had been appointed in every district of the province.

The secretary said that 446 criminal courts were functioning in Sindh for which vacancies were planned to be filled.—PPI