Provincial government to recruit 400 new prosecutors

Sindh Law and Prisons Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar announced that the Sindh government would soon be recruiting 400 new prosecutors for courts across the province.

This he stated while talking to media personnel following a meeting held to discuss setting up new anti-terrorism court in the province, on Wednesday. The matter will be overseen by a committee comprising secretary home department and prosecutor general Sindh.

Lanjar said the prosecutors to be recruited by the Sindh government will inspect cases pending in courts and ensure they are decided upon at the earliest. The law minister said that at present 50 ATCs were functioning in the province where over 50,000 cases were being adjudicated upon.

As for the matter of Sindh’s new anti-graft agency, the law minister said that a session of the Sindh Assembly is scheduled for July 24 (Monday) in which the new accountability bill will be presented. The Opposition lawmakers of the house will also be taken into confidence regarding the new bill, he added.

After the review committee’s meeting a day earlier, the law minister had said the Sindh government had proposed news laws to strengthen the courts, instead of empowering any single authority in the province.

Hassan said that under the new bill, the chief of the proposed provincial anti-corruption watchdog would be appointed by a committee of the Sindh Assembly, with representation of both the treasury and the opposition benches.

He said anti-corruption laws were being improved for effective action against corrupt people, adding that the proposed law would hold every corrupt person accountable irrespective of their authority or status in society.

The minister said the new law would not be used to punish innocent people. “For the purpose, various law experts in the province were invited to propose drafts of their own to adopt a new provincial-level anti-corruption bill.”

Recommendations were also invited from the information minister, the advocate general and officials of the government departments of law, anti-corruption establishment (ACE) and services, he added. “They were also asked to share their ideas to improve the draft.”

Responding to a question, the law minister asserted that the Pakisan Muslim League-Nawaz should not equate Maryam Nawaz with the Pakistan Peoples Party’s slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

He said the chief justice of Pakistan should take cognizance of the drama being staged outside the Supreme Court’s building wherein politicians stage a parallel political court. He said the PML-N’s rulers in the centre had no basis to object to the findings of the Joint Investigation Team’s report, investigating the Panama Papers’ scandal. He said the JIT report has proved that every person of the ruling family was corrupt and that they had earned money through unlawful means.