PESHAWAR, Dec 27: The government has failed to appoint a prosecution officer, which is creating hurdles in the working of the prosecution directorate, said official sources.

Also, the government is yet to notify the rules concerned for the directorate. Sources said that the government was legally bound to appoint a director-general to head the prosecution directorate, and director (legal) and director (administration), but due to differences between various departments, including home and law departments, the post was still lying vacant.

The director-general has to perform various important functions under the Prosecution Service (Constitution, Function and Powers) Ordinance, 2004; therefore, the law could not be implemented due to non-appointment against this key post.

The directors of the legal and administration branches of the directorate have also to perform wide-ranging functions. The idea of establishing an independent Prosecution Institution (PI) was floated over two years ago under the Asian Development Bank's funded Access to Justice Programme.

But the home and law departments in the province locked horns over maintaining supervision of the directorate. Previously, the directorate was an attached department of the law department.

After over two years of consultations, the provincial government through a notification on March 17, 2004, detached the criminal prosecution from the law department and placed it under the administrative control of the home department.

To fulfil the legal requirement, the Prosecution Service (Constitution, Function and Powers) Ordinance, 2004, was promulgated by the NWFP governor on Aug 25, which was published in the official gazette on Oct 18. The ordinance has also been submitted to the NWFP Assembly so that it could be enacted as an act of the assembly.

Official sources said the draft Prosecution Service Rules 2004 had been prepared by the standing service rules committee and sent to the law department for the purpose of vetting on Oct 9, but it had yet to be notified.

Legal circles said it was necessary to appoint the director-general at the earliest so that the directorate could perform the functions mentioned in the law. The rules, they said, should also be notified so as to clarify various questions of the prosecutors.