KARACHI: The provincial law department has said that it had spent around Rs36.8 million on payment of monthly remuneration of the special public prosecutors engaged by Pakistan Rangers Sindh and on defence lawyers to plead cases of pauper accused persons.

It may be recalled here that the auditor general of Pakistan had found that offices of prosecutor general and advocate general had paid Rs44.704m to private lawyers on account of law charges allegedly in violation of an apex court order handed down in 2017.

According to a press release, the law department said that payment of Rs44.407m to private lawyers during fiscal year 2022-23 pertained to the offices of prosecutor general and advocate general which had paid Rs36.810m and Rs7.894m, respectively, to private lawyers on account of law charges.

It maintained that in 2016, the budget under the head of law charges was shifted from the home department to the prosecutor general for hiring of special prosecutors for the Rangers as per their nomination on monthly salaries, as well as engaging other lawyers on court orders for pleading the cases of pauper accused on state expenditures on the remuneration fixed by the court.

“The Prosecutor General Sindh simply started monthly payment to Special Public Prosecutors for Pakistan Rangers against the certificates received from Pakistan Rangers Headquarters issued by the Home Department, Government of Sindh. It is further clarified that the payment to the advocates for pauper accused was originally made upon their appointment by the Hon’ble High Courts and Lower Courts and after issuing certified copies of Judgments, Appointment Orders, Certificate and Case Diaries,” it added.

Regarding payment of Rs7.894m, the statement said that the advocate general had to hire services of private advocates known as “Advocates on Record” primarily for handling paperwork and administrative aspects of cases while court appearance was handled by the Supreme Court enrolled law officers.

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2024