PESHAWAR, Jan 12: The proposed separate prosecution department will pave the way for the Hasba bill which is being opposed by opposition parties in the assembly, said sources.

They told Dawn the other day that the NWFP government had planned to rob police of its prosecution powers and establish the separate department to enforce the proposed Hasba bill phase-wise, but indirectly. Commenting on the proposed department, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People's Party Parliamentarians said it was an attack on the basic criminal law.

He said that on the one hand the government wanted to employ its people sitting in seminaries while on the other to target the political opponent by misusing the department.

According to the bill of the prosecution department, scheduled to be tabled in the next session, the MMA government would recruit a director-general, deputy director-generals and assistant director-generals at the provincial as well district levels, Mr Khan added.

He feared that the MMA government would use the department against its opponents. The constitution of a separate but a controversial agency would be a burden on the provincial exchequer which had already failed to allocate funds for the schemes identified in June last in the annual development programme, he added.

Mr Khan said: "We know that the government wants to enforce the Hasba Act through a different channel, but we will oppose it. They will replace the police force with its religious force.

The new department will give unprecedented powers to the director-general to withdraw any case and the MMA government would influence the investigation process in criminal cases."

Earlier, speaking at seminar on Sunday, MMA secretary-general Maulana Fazlur Rehman reiterated that the NWFP government would soon table the Hasba bill in the NWFP assembly.