RAWALPINDI, July 29: The sacked deputy and assistant district public prosecutors here on Tuesday petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench, challenging the decision of the Punjab government under which their services have been terminated.

Five deputy and 12 assistant public prosecutors maintained in their petition that they along with 471 other prosecutors in the Punjab were sacked through an order of the Punjab Prosecution Department (PPD) secretary on July 25 “without any lawful justification and any prior notice”.

Making the Punjab government respondent through the law and justice secretary, PPD secretary and the district public prosecutor in Rawalpindi; the petitioners said they were inducted into the Public Prosecution Department in 2007 after met the criteria under the Punjab Criminal Prosecution Service Act 2006.

They were also interviewed by a committee and were declared successful.

Terming the step of the provincial government politically motivated, the petitioners said that their services were terminated without following the rules and serving any show cause notice on them.

The petitioners said they were not provided an opportunity of hearing before the passing of the impugned order which was violative of “the audi alteram partem”, a principle of natural justice.

The sole reason mentioned in the termination order, the petitioners said, was their failure in qualifying the interview taken last year. They argued that it was not tenable to consider the failure after a year, as the interviews were conducted in May-June 2007.Secondly, the petitioners were declared successful in verbal announcement as no written results of the interviews were issued. The petitioners also maintained that the impugned order was “discriminatory and in violation of Article 25 of the constitution” as other appointees, who were appointed with the petitioners and were placed in the identical positions, were still in the service and had not been terminated.

They said as per the terms of the appointments, the prosecutors would continue working till the inductions made through the Punjab Public Service Commission and such appointments were yet to be made.

The petitioners prayed to the court that the impugned order be declared illegal, unlawful, and arbitrary without lawful authority and of no legal effect.