A consultative meeting with Bahawalpur Press Club on ‘Rule of Law ´ Significance of Independent Prosecution Service in Criminal Justice System and Role of Media’ was held on Wednesday, April 16, 2014, at La Taska Hotel, Bahawalpur, as part of GIZ-CRSS-PPD advocacy campaign for the Support to the Punjab Prosecution Service (SPPS) project and sensitize media representatives on this subject.

Faisal Bukhari, General Secretary Bahawalpur Bar Association, former General Secretary Bahawalpur Bar Association and Senior Lawyer Javed Akhtar Pirzada, President Bahawalpur Press Club Shahid Akhtar Balouch, President Human Development and Relief Organization (HDRO)Yasmin Muslim spoke on the importance of media in highlighting issues of common interest and creating awareness among the people.

Faisal Bukhari called for comprehensive reforms in prosecution department and said while lodging FIRs a majority of complainants didn’t understand the procedure. He stressed the need for an awareness campaign and asked the media persons to highlight the functions of the prosecution service so that a common man should know what benefits he could get.

Senior Lawyer Javed Akhtar Pirzada said that due to poor prosecution system the results were not as expected. He demanded protection for the witnesses. He said awareness among the people, education and training of media persons were a must to make them understand what the prosecution service was all about.

Yasmin Muslim said laws only existed in the books. She said basic function of a prosecutor was to ensure that a case was properly investigated and this was possible only when the prosecutors were independent. He said thelaws should be implemented in letter and spirit with a mechanism in place to monitor the performance of the prosecution service.

Shahid Akhtar Balouch thanked the CRSS for providing the media persons with an opportunity to understand the reforms being introduced in the prosecution service. The journalists said they were not aware of the establishment of a prosecution service.

CRRS Project Director Rana Qaisar conducted the discussion and also explained the functions of the prosecution service and role of a prosecutor in criminal justice system.