LAHORE, July 30: Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said on Wednesday that illegal dismissals of hundreds of prosecutors had proved that the Punjab government did not believe in the rule of law. He said he would move court against the dismissals.

Mr Elahi, who met a delegation of lawyers from different districts of Punjab, said the dismissals had shown Punjab rulers had raised the slogans of democracy and the rule of law but acted otherwise.

He said his government had created an independent prosecution service in Punjab under the Access to Justice Programme, funded by the Asian Development Bank, for speedy disposal of cases.

Hundreds of prosecutors ere recruited on a three-year contract under the provincial recruitment policy and it was decided the posts would be re-filled through the Punjab Public Service Commission after three years under an order of the Lahore High Court.

Recruitments through the PPSC were still one-and-a-half year away but the rulers had sacked the prosecutors.

The present government also made its own recruitment board and was appointing its favourites as law officers in different government departments.

He said he would move court for the reinstatement of the prosecutors and he was sure that they would get their jobs back because all the recruitments in his tenure were transparent and lawful.