KARACHI: Amid a full-throated opposition protest, the Pakistan Peoples Party managed to get passed a key amendment bill in the Sindh Assembly on Friday, empowering its government to “withdraw from the prosecution” of any person being tried by any court before the final judgement of the case, or cases, against him/her.

After gubernatorial assent to the Sindh Criminal Prosecution Service (Constitution, functions and powers) (Amendment) Bill, 2015, the provincial government, through its prosecutor general, will not only be able to discharge any accused but also take disciplinary action against any investigator and call record from any law enforcement agency.

Although the government claimed that it amended the 2009 criminal prosecution law to comply with the decisions of the superior judiciary, it is widely believed that the new amendments would benefit the ruling party as well as its key leaders and certain bureaucrats, most of whom are facing corruption probes against them.

While the bill was on the order of the day only for introduction, Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro tabled a motion for suspension of relevant rules for the consideration of the bill which was put to the house for a voice vote by Deputy Speaker Syeda Shehla Raza, who was chairing the session.

Opposition members launched a noisy protest over the motion and they, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan, gathered before the rostrum of the speaker, tore up copies of the bill and chanted ‘No, No’. But the house passed the amendment bill after three readings of the 11-clause document were completed in a few minutes.

The government inserted a new section, Section 9-A, in the Sindh Criminal Prosecution Service (Constitution, functions and powers) Act 2009 through which it empowered the prosecutor general — a lawyer appointed by the provincial government — to issue guidelines not only to his subordinate prosecutors but also to “officers responsible for investigation” for effective and efficient prosecution.

However, it appears that legal eagles of the provincial government carefully crafted the term “officers responsible for investigation” to bring Rangers officials under the administrative control of the PPP government through its prosecutor general.

Under Section 9-A(e), the government empowered a prosecutor to “withdraw, with the consent of the Court, from the prosecution of any person either generally or in respect of anyone or more of the offences for which he is being tried”.

However, according to Section 9-A(e)(iii) of the bill, the prosecutor, or prosecutor general, have to obtain prior approval of the government for withdrawing cases “triable by the special courts and at any stage of a trial before any trial court subordinate to the High Court before the judgement is passed, the prosecutor general or any prosecutor specifically authorised by him, may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, inform the court on behalf of Government that the prosecutor shall not prosecute the accused upon the charge and thereupon all proceedings against the accused shall be stayed and he shall be discharged of and from the same: provided that such discharge shall not amount to an acquittal unless the court directs otherwise”.

Another amendment inserted in the 2009 law empowered the prosecutor general to replace any prosecutor from any court in the name of ‘distribution of work’. The amendment reads: “The prosecutor general or any prosecutor authorised by him shall distribute work to the prosecutors in the Supreme Court, High Court, Federal Shariat Court or a Special Court, Tribunal established under any law”.

After the bill was passed, the chair called it a day at 2.15pm to reassemble on Monday at 10am.

Opposition leader says govt want to withdraw cases

After the session, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Khawaja Izhar told reporters that the hasty adoption of the bill suggested that the government wanted to withdraw some cases.

When asked whether he was referring to the cases against former federal minister Dr Asim Hussain, he said now the government could withdraw any case against anyone.

He said that now the government could remove any honest prosecutor from any case and appoint a prosecutor of its choice.

He regretted the hasty passage of the bill and said that the government without taking the opposition on board, got passed the bill in a mere three minutes.

The parliamentary party leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Syed Sardar Ahmad, said that the opposition objected to the bill since no conditions and circumstances for withdrawal of a case was mentioned in the document

Nusrat Sehar Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Khurram Sher Zaman also criticised the government attitude and said that the government had grabbed powers to grant prosecution immunity.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2016