LAHORE, Feb 20: Provincial home and law secretaries will meet in Islamabad on Tuesday to draft amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code for restoring the system of executive magistracy. Official sources said here on Sunday that a meeting of the inter-provincial coordination committee held in Islamabad on Friday had agreed to restore the system.

The meeting presided over by Minister of Inter-Provincial Coordination Raza Rabbani was attended by chief secretaries of the provinces. The sources said Mr Rabbani had asked the law division to invite the law and home secretaries of the provinces to draft the amendments to the CrPC needed for the purpose.

The magistracy system was replaced by district governments by the Musharraf regime in 2001 and powers of deputy commissioner-cum-district magistrate were divided between the judiciary, police and some departments concerned.

Officials said that it had been agreed to restore the system of executive magistracy as it stood on August 13, 2001.

The sources said that the federal and provincial governments had informally taken the judiciary into confidence on the issue because they felt that they could not establish their writ without the executive magistracy.