"It is better that 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffers," is a widely quoted expression of English jurist Sir William Blackstone. No doubt this should be a consideration in a criminal justice system, but modern day challenges call for much more. There are calls that instead of letting 10 guilty escape punishment, the focus should be on punishing each and every guilty person and protecting every innocent. This is imperative as such acquittal may lead to repetition of crimes and spread of impunity among habitual criminals.

It is widely debated in Pakistan that criminals and terrorists win acquittal mainly for the reason that their cases are not contested properly in courts. There are inherent flaws in the criminal justice system which favours the accused in criminal cases. The lack of communication between the investigators and the prosecutors is one big reason for this.

Over the years, the situation has worsened and made the policymakers think about reforming the system. There have been attempts at achieving this end but before discussing them there is a need to have a look at what has existed on ground.

Asad Jamal, a Lahore-based lawyer and Human Rights activist, believes the prosecutors have a critical role in the whole scenario but they are not taken seriously by police which think they are answerable only to the political elite and the chief executive of the province.

Besides, he says the prosecutors do not have the power to reject weak cases as happens in the developed world. Furthermore, Asad Jamal says, all those people linked to prosecution of terrorism cases are vulnerable to assault. These include judges, police officers, prosecutors, witnesses etc. They have no protection and even in the presence of a law, one wonders how such a law can be enforced, he adds. He suggests a long-term holistic approach for improvement in the situation and overhauling all the departments which are directly or indirectly linked with prosecution.

Those at the helm of affairs claim they are aware of the situation. As a case in point, a law was promulgated back in 2006 to introduce an independent prosecution service/department in Punjab. At that time, around 1200 lawyers were inducted in the department as prosecutors but later on it was found out that most of them had been appointed on political basis. These appointments were cancelled and fresh appointments were made through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) to ensure that the new prosecutors were competent and independent of any influence.

As per the Punjab government plan, there is a lot of stress on modern training and recently the Prosecution Department has carried out a 100-day training session for the prosecutors. The trainings have been conducted by local as well as international trainers with the aim to bring the quality of criminal prosecution to a desired level.

A major development is the setting up of a training academy for prosecutors in Lahore by German government through its executing agency GIZ. It is a fact that German government spends almost one million euros every year for improvement of our prosecution service.

Former IG Rana Maqbool, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Punjab, admits problems have been there for long and tells TNS things are improving fast and prosecution system of the country is being reformed on modern lines.

For example, he says, there is a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory set up in Lahore at the cost of Rs 3billion. This facility will help investigators in collection of scientific evidence which will strengthen cases for prosecution in courts. Besides, he says, the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) has been amended and from now onwards video and audio recordings will be accepted as admissible evidence. This is highly important keeping in view the risks involved in dependence on ocular evidence.

Unnecessary delays in registration of criminal cases shall also be discouraged and even punished, suggests Irshad Arif, a columnist and head of a Lahore-based think-tank. With the passage of time, he says, the interest of people in a particular case wanes. This also compromises the quality of investigation as evidence may get destroyed in the meanwhile.

Irshad says it is a pity that the SHO and moharrar are reluctant to register cases just to prove that the rate of crime is low in their area. This trend should be discouraged and the number of cases registered in a particular police station should not have to do with his performance report.

However, one major reason for weak prosecution is the existing gap between police and the prosecutors. Maqbool agrees these relations have not been ideal in the past but adds the partnership between the two is developing fast. Previously, challans were given to prosecutors after their completion but now the latter are made to sit with police officers from the start and even test the trial-worthiness of these cases.

Maqbool says he has instructed prosecutors to go to the police stations especially on Sundays -- their off day -- and look into the investigations carried out by investigators.

He refers to a meeting with some officer-bearers of bar associations who said they had observed positive changes in the prosecution system. Their observation was that earlier prosecutors would accept bribes right, left and center but now this was not the case. He shares it with TNS that the department is going to set up a helpline and flash phone numbers where complaints against prosecutors could be sent for immediate action.

He clarifies that prosecution’s role is only related to the contested cases, and not the ones which cannot be tried in courts due to various reasons including retraction of witnesses, disappearance of the accused, involvement of proclaimed offenders, for being compoundable or being consigned to record.

He, however, adds police and prosecutors can play an important role in preventing crime or violence by taking pre-emptive actions jointly. They can invoke relevant clauses of Ghunda Ordinance, Habitual Offenders’ Act, Rassa Geer Act etc to put the miscreant’s under scanner and stop them from taking law in their hand.

Of late, the police and prosecution teams are trying to follow some standard procedures devised recently. For example, it is suggested that police shall bring into notice of prosecution, incidence of a crime, immediately by providing a copy of the FIR to the district public prosecutor office, give importance to the pre-trial advice coming from the prosecution like how to strengthen the evidential basis of the case, get advice from prosecutor according to the checklist of the case and so.

It is also advised that the Investigation Officer (IO) and the prosecutor shall keep the victims and witnesses informed of the progress in a case. Both are encouraged to communicate with each other via short message service (SMS), e-mails etc. The IOs shall, during pre-trial stage, prepare police briefs, especially in high profile/terrorism cases, to assist prosecutors in their decision-making process.