LAHORE: Punjab demands high rate of conviction from its team of prosecutors but they are so dissatisfied with their defective service structure that many are leaving for greener pastures. The lack of power to supervise the investigation of cases and to reject those not worthy of going to trial is a second major problem.

They pursue cases that they know they will lose, wasting their and the court`s time, besides the taxpayers` money.

Official figures about instituted and decided cases in trial (subordinate) courts from January to November 2013 show the performance of this dissatisfied and frustrated team. In January there were 443,876 pending cases. From January to November, 349,028 new cases were instituted. It is estimated that around 150,000 of them were not trial-worthy.

Conviction was achieved in 58,504 of the cases contested and as many as 5,934 accused were acquitted. The department says the conviction rate was over 90 per cent.

The following details show where the real pro blem is. As many as 27,999 cases were filed (lost) in magisterial courts because witnesses resiled. Another 4,922 cases went uncontested in sessions courts. In 22,444 cases, the accused persons were acquitted because of compromises with the rival parties.

The most significant fact is that 131,485 cases were filed due to various prosecution faults such as the non-appearance of witnesses or the accused persons. In the majority of cases, the accused remained untraced. And the number of pending cases by the end of November was 541,616.

`The province in 2006 created the independent service under the access to justice programme to ensure the conviction of criminals,` a senior official told Dawn. `It is better than the earlier mechanism of district attorneys but those running it are disappointed with their service prospects.

Senior criminal law practitioner Azam Nazir Tarar agrees that the service is good but also recommends on-the-job training to update prosecutors on new laws and amendments.

`Yes, there is need to improve the structure and also to give result-oriented bonuses to them for better performance,` says the lawyer who has faced prosecutors in the courts for years.

He says the lack of power to supervise investigations and the preparation of cases is a real problem for prosecutors.

The conviction rate in all developed countries is 100 per cent because prosecutors supervise investigations and ensure that only cases worthy of going to trial are sent to the courts, he points out.

All the prosecutors were recruited in 2010 through the Punjab Public Service Commission on the regularised basis. There are two sets of prosecutors.

One is for the districts where the team is headed by a district public prosecutor (DPP). Under him aredeputy district public prosecutors (DDPPs) and assistant district public prosecutors (ADPPs). The ADPP is in BS-17, DDPP in BS-18 and DPP in BS19. The second set of prosecutors is for the superior courts. This comprises the prosecutor general, additional prosecutor general (APG) in BS-19 and deputy prosecutor general (DPG) in BS-18.

The law under which the service was created does provide a promotion ladder for all posts but not for the main district public prosecutor. This is the hurdle at the heart of the matter, not just blocking access to the senior posts of APG and DPG but also disallowing promotions from the lower posts of DDPP and DPP.

According to the law, all the posts of the ADPP, 25 per cent each of the DDPP and DPP and 50 per cent each of the DPG and APG were to be filled through direct recruitments. And 75 per cent each of the seats of DDPP and DPP,and50 percenteach of the DPG and the APG were to be filled through promotions from the lower ranks.

The actual situation is that the majority of seats in other ranks and 50 per cent of the DPG seats are lying vacant because of one simple reason: the DPP of BS-19 is supposed to be promoted to the rank of DPG, which is of BS-18.

Officials say the unheard-of mechanism under which a junior is senior to the next higher post is disallowing the filling in of 50 per cent of the posts of DPGs through promotions of DPPs. As a result, 25 DPGs are handling the workload of 50.

And since there is no promotion from the lower rank, APG posts too are lying vacant.

No APG can be promoted to the rank of prosecutor general as this post is filled at the will of the sitting government.

Sources say that in addition to this, a lack of facilities such as offices, transport and low allowances is making prosecutor of the lower ranks DDPP and ADPP shift over to other services. ADPPs are given a monthly allowance of Rs5,000 andDDPPs Rs7,500.

Almost all the ADPPs do not have offices where they can go over cases or interview witnesses. This work is done in the courtroom, in front of the defence lawyers.

ADPPs and DDPPs have no official transport, and they go to the police stations or the courts on foot or, if they have it, on their own transport.

This situation is making them seek other options. So far around 100 prosecutors of different ranks have left the service. Three of the total 25 DPGs became additional sessions judges three months ago. Around 200 prosecutors have applied for the posts of civil judges and nearly 80 are expected to be selected.

Officials say the prosecution department continues to recruit more officers. But the departure of the experienced ones is a loss which the new entrants are not likely to compensate for, at least immediately.

Officials say the department had been stressing upon the need to remove these anomalies to make the team a strong prosecution force. The financial cost is not high but a lack of interest is costing the government dearly.

The post of APG needs to be upgraded to BS-20 and of DPG to BS19. This does not involve much money but the appealis going unheard.

`Ensuring a flawless criminal judicial system is the prime duty of the government to maintain law and order. But this cannot be done without a proper prosecution being set up,` an official said.

`The government is allocating huge funds to arrest criminals but the effort is being wasted because of the poorly managed prosecution service.

The annual budget of the police is around Rs70 billion. The judiciary looks after its officers and officials properly. But the annual budget of the entire prosecution department is nearly Rs2.25 billion, the official said, pointing out what he called `stepmotherly` treatment being given to the backbone of the criminal justice system.