PESHAWAR, March 6: The district public prosecutor has directed the Peshawar police not to charge any accused under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, without first taking his opinion.

In a circular issued to all SHOs in the district a few days ago, Public Prosecutor Sikander Sahibzada directed that from now onwards the public prosecutor would decide if provisions of the act applied to an accused and submit the final charge sheet to the anti-terrorism court if found necessary. The directive has been issued under the Prosecution Service (Constitution, Functions and Powers) Act, 2005.

Recently, the ATC in Peshawar has returned various cases to ordinary courts, observing that they did not fall in the category of terrorism. Prior to this, various cases, including robberies, kidnapping and murders, were pending before the ATC. Even various cases filed against tenants in Charssada district were also filed before the ATC.

The circular said that for physical remand of an accused, an application should be forwarded through the public prosecutor concerned. In this way, if the relevant court refused, the superior court could be moved in the case, it added.

It also directed that for recording statements of witnesses under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, an application should be forwarded through the public prosecutor concerned to help remove flaws.

Mr Sahibzada told the police that charge sheets in all cases should be directly submitted to the district public prosecutor under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The prosecutor would submit it to the court concerned after thorough scrutiny.

The police was also directed to sent a copy of every FIR to the prosecutor who would issue directives on it and supervise investigation. If the police arrested a person without warrants, they should inform the district Nazim in writing and public prosecutor, the circular said.

The Prosecution Service Act empowers the public prosecutor to lodge a case before a competent court for trial after receiving the final report. He is also authorised to withhold the case for want of proper evidence and return it to the investigation officer concerned with written direction. The officer would resubmit the report after removing deficiencies identified in it.

The act, part of the Access to Justice Programme funded by the Asian Development Bank, is aimed at improving the criminal justice system.

Section 9(4) of the act envisages that during investigation whenever any legal guidance/opinion is required by the head of investigation, it should be sought from the district public prosecutor/public prosecutor, and the guidance should be followed.

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In these schemes, priority was given to the construction of roads, repair of watercourses and establishment of community schools in the Agency.

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