Ensuring that prosecutors are held accountable for breaching their ethical duties is not at all a difficult task
KARACHI: Prosecutors in Pakistan are able to cover their wrongdoings and negligence in the courtroom behind the shield of immunity. Most unskilled prosecutors are never brought to justice, thanks to the law of Sindh Criminal Prosecution Service Act of 2009 and the Punjab Criminal Prosecution Service Act of 2006, which state that prosecutors cannot be sued for negligence on their part and for violating citizens’ fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan of 1973, in the courtroom. Prosecutors are granted immunity for most kinds of misconduct, from using false evidence to suppressing exculpatory evidence or intentional negligence and countless deliberate adjournments, without any fear that they will be held personally liable.
The rule of prosecutorial immunity has wide-ranging consequences, it means that a prosecutor who induces witnesses, especially police officials appearing in the capacity of witnesses, to lie under oath are immune from civil liabilities, hence accused persons have no legal recourse against the prosecutors. There is clear evidence that substantial numbers of innocent people have been convicted and even put on death row as a result of prosecutorial negligence, that virtually always goes unsanctioned and unpunished.
Although claims under the law of tort against the prosecutors are always available to the defendants/accused persons, but because recourse to justice is costly in Pakistan poor people cannot afford it. In October 2016, the Supreme Court acquitted a person who was convicted of murder. However, he did not live to see the day as he died while serving out his sentence. In March 2017, a prosecutor in Lahore, who said he can “guarantee the acquittal of 42 Christians charged with killing two men, if they convert to Islam,” has only been temporarily suspended by the Punjab Prosecution Department with no FIR lodged against him, nor did the Bar Council cancelled his advocate licence for breaching the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act.
Ensuring that prosecutors are held accountable for breaching their ethical duties is not at all a difficult task nor does it require a constitutional amendment. It only requires the implementation of Canons of Professional Conduct and Etiquette of advocates and Legal Practitioners and the Bar Council Act of 1973 in a serious sense by the relevant Bar Councils, ethics and disciplinary committees, and by the prosecutors general of the relevant provinces.
Arsalan Raja
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2017.
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