Special public prosecutors case: Contract lawyers complain they are being used and disposed of

Counsellors claim that they are being fired despite fighting cases no one is willing to take.

KARACHI: Muhammad Khan Buriro, the public prosecutor who came into the limelight as Sarfraz Shah’s lawyer, made a public demand for an explanation as to why special public prosecutors and additional prosecutors were being “targeted and fired”.

“Right from the Supreme Court to the Sindh government’s advocate general’s office, retired officers and lawyers over 70 years old are working on contract,” he observed, addressing the media at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club. Following the Supreme Court’s verdict in the suo motu case about Karachi violence, the spotlight fell on the special public prosecutors who were posted to anti-terrorism courts (ATCs). The two judges, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, questioned their ability to deliver if they were on contract. Eventually, Sindh Prosecutor General Shahadat Awan told the Supreme Court committee that all 37 prosecutors who were hired on contract were being removed. Awan heads the department and is the Advocate General who represents the entire provincial set-up.

Two days later, Sindh’s law secretary and home secretary appeared before the court to inform them that all special public prosecutors have been relieved of their duties and, in the future, all such posts would only be filled through the Sindh Public Service Commission. Buriro was the law officer in the Sarfraz Shah murder case in which five Rangers’ officials were sentenced to life imprisonment and one to execution. He now heads the committee working for the restoration of public prosecutors who were appointed on contract at 11 ATCs across Sindh, three and a half years ago.

Buriro claimed that, after fulfilling all legal requirements, special public prosecutors were appointed by the Sindh government under Act 18 of the Anti-Terrorism Law of 1997. The judges have been appointed under Act 14 of the same law, he added. “I have this strong feeling that we are being used and then fired,” Buriro alleged. “When nobody was willing to, we pleaded the cases against the militants of the Tehreek-i-Taliban, Lashkar-i Jhangvi and other banned terrorist outfits.” He went on to point out that, despite repeated requests, lawyers have not been provided security, service confirmation or incentives.

“Were we responsible for the target killings in Karachi?” Buriro lamented. “We offered our duties with sincerity, yet it seems that we are being punished for the situation in Karachi.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2011.