Half of the junior prosecutors in Punjab have applied for the posts of civil judges for a better career and wages, firing a torpedo in the base of the provincial prosecution department being pressed hard to have the ordinary criminals and terrorists convicted under the National Action Plan necessitated by the Peshawar Army School tragedy. There are 600 assistant district public prosecutors (ADPPs) and 150 deputy district public prosecutors(DDPs) in the province. And 300 of them, including over 95 per cent ADPs, have applied for civil judge posts announced by the Punjab Public Service Commission, say sources on Sunday. As many as 100 prosecutors of these ranks had become civil judges last year after qualifying for the post, creating a severe shortage of manpower in one of the most important tier of the criminal justice system. However according to some reports one hundred and fifty public prosecutors in Punjab have quit their jobs to take up posts in the judiciary, after they successfully passed the requisite tests conducted for 378 posts for civil judges in the lower courts. Prosecutors are a vital cog in the justice machine; they ensure that evidence is properly collated and presented so that the case against the accused can be successfully prosecuted. In Pakistan, the legal system as a whole is broken, corrupt and inefficient, particularly at the lower court level. This is on account of multiple issues, including a lack of resources and training, while the rot in the prosecutorial sector also owes much to the fact that prosecutors have few reasons to consider their job as little more than a stepping stone to the greener pastures of the bench. But given the circumstances in which they work, can anyone really blame them? Treated as drudges rather than as professionals doing extremely important work, they have few facilities and meagre opportunities for career advancement. Moreover, threats from some of the dangerous individuals it is their job to prosecute are a constant occupational hazard. In 2013, the prosecutor in the Benazir Bhutto murder case was gunned down; some prosecutors have even sought asylum abroad. To add insult to injury, public prosecutors are paid a pittance of Rs33,000 a month — a fact that also contributes to corruption on the job. Compare that with Rs82,000 that a civil judge earns as monthly remuneration and the exodus from the prosecution department becomes understandable. All this means that the already formidable caseload of the remaining prosecutors will become heavier still, thereby inevitably compromising the quality of their work and the ability of the judicial system to send behind bars those who threaten the peace of society.
pk.shafaqna.com
