LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the Punjab chief secretary to decide within three months a matter regarding posts of deputy prosecutors in the province lying vacant for long.

Advocate Javed Imran Ranjha filed a writ petition pleading that 45 out of 68 sanctioned posts of deputy prosecutors had been lying vacant for over a year. He said progress in cases pending with the courts came to a standstill due to unavailability of the deputy prosecutors.

The lawyer asked the court to order the government to fill the vacancies of the deputy prosecutors without further delay.

Justice Shujaat Ali Khan disposed of the petition and directed the chiefsecretary to resolve the matter within three months.

SHADOW CABINET: An intra-court appeal (ICA) has been filed in the Lahore High Court challenging dismissal of a writ petition seeking an order for formation of shadow cabinet in Punjab.

Lawyers` Foundation for Justice filed the appeal through Advocate A.K Dogar saying the single bench dismissed the petition ignoring many provisions of the Constitution.

The lawyer states in the appeal that the single bench itself observed in its impugned decision that the concept of shadow cabinet is not just for accountability but to prepare a cabinet ready to perform functions of the cabinet if the opposition party wins elections.

Yet the single bench judge drew a different conclusion completely opposed to his own view, he adds.

The petitioner argues that the observation made by the single judge suggests that he (judge) was in agreement with the concept of shadow cabinet but he wrongly thought that unless the phrase `shadow cabinet` appeared in the Constitution itself, it was not possible for the court to accept the petition.

He pleads that the single bench failed to notice that the Constitution, in fact, is designed to create parliamentary democracy.

The petitioner asks the court to set aside the impugned verdict of the single bench and pass an order in light of the contention made in the writ petition. A division bench would take up the appeal on Monday.

Justice Atir Mahmood had dismissed the writ petition last month.

The petitioner in the plea had submitted that it was well settled that in a parliamentary system of government the majority party formed a cabinet of ministers to perform its executive functions but at the same time its shadow cabinet was appointed by the opposition. He said setting up a shadow cabinet would be the first step towards accountability and all kinds of corruption would be curbed.