LAHORE, May 9: An overwhelming majority of the district attorneys and deputy district attorneys have opted for the new public prosecution service to represent the government in criminal cases. Out of the 67 district attorneys and 182 deputy district attorneys, 58 and 140 have opted for the new service in which they would be absorbed as district public prosecutors and deputy district public prosecutors, official sources informed Dawn on Tuesday.

They said there were around 950 posts of district, deputy district and assistant district public prosecutors and the remaining would be filled through fresh recruitments.

The absorption of the district and deputy attorneys in the new service would be notified in around 10 days after checking their service record and other qualification criterion, following which “we will start making fresh appointments,” the officials said.

They said unlike the initial idea, fresh recruitments would be made by the public prosecution department instead of the Punjab Public Service Commission owing to a legal flaw.

To explain the reason for the change of policy, they said the PPSC was authorised to recruit government servants on a regular basis whereas under the provincial government policy all fresh appointments in BS-17 and above would be made on a contract.

They said a department committee had already been constituted which would select the fresh candidates and then submit their final list to the chief minister for approval.

The government plans to employ 40 district public prosecutors (one for each district and five in reserve), 275 deputy district public prosecutors and 648 assistant public prosecutors in BS-17, 18 and 19.

Besides giving some allowance to the absorbed district and deputy district attorneys, it has reportedly decided to give pay higher than the salary for BS-17, 18 and 19 to the fresh public prosecutors.

“We are hiring professionals for the posts on a contract and they need to be given some incentive,” the officials said.

They said the candidates having a law degree with a five-year practical experience would be eligible for the posts of deputy public prosecutors. Those having three-year experience could apply for the posts of assistant public prosecutors. The condition of experience would be relaxed for those having postgraduate degrees of LLM or PhD.

The public prosecutors of all the three categories would be given a monthly allowance of around Rs15,000. The salary package for BS-17 would be Rs20,000, for BS-18 (Rs25,000) and for BS-19 (Rs30,000).

The district public prosecutors would be given separate furnished offices and official vehicles. Each one of them would also be given one superintendent, one personal assistant, one assistant and one messenger. The officers of the two other categories would have one clerk and one messenger each.

The offices of the district and deputy district attorneys had ceased to exist after the promulgation of the law regulating the new public prosecution service last month. And to pursue the government cases in courts till the creation of the new service, the government had notified that the existing team of attorneys would act as public prosecutors as a stopgap arrangement.

The attorneys have been using staff and other paraphernalia that is stated to be the property of the provincial law department, which intends to use it for its own team of prosecutors who would represent the government in civil matters.