LAHORE – The Punjab government has written to the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) of the federal government to take up measures to revive the old system of magistracy in Punjab, Pakistan Today has learnt. In the letter, the provincial government has requested the centre to take up the matter and “make relevant amendments” in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to revive the old system of magistracy in the province.
The federal government abolished the magistracy system after making amendments in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in 2001 and promulgated the Punjab Local Government Ordinance (PLGO), introducing a hierarchy of public representatives from the councilor to district nazim. The incumbent government soon after coming to power started efforts to revive the old system and had written to the centre earlier as well. According to sources, privy to the development, the pre-2001 position would be revived with powers conferred upon civil servants.
Before 2001, the deputy commissioner used to be the district magistrate, the assistant commissioner the sub-divisional magistrate, followed by the extra assistant commissioner. The magistrate had powers to hear criminal cases, all except those in which death sentence or life imprisonment was given. After amendment in the CrPC, these powers were distributed among police, judiciary and office of district nazim.
But after expiry of terms of local government representatives in Punjab, some of the powers such as the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) were transferred again to the district coordination officer (DCO). According to sources, the government has already been working on a new draft of the local government ordinance to “fuse” the two systems together, as a new hierarchy of deputy district officers (DDO), executive district officers (EDO) and DCO has replaced the old system of magistracy with DCs and ACs.
They said that the government has not yet decided on “nitty-gritty” of the new system, as to where powers of magistracy would be conferred upon in the new system. According to sources, the decision has been taken because presently the powers lie with the judiciary, which comes under the Lahore High Court (LHC) and “both the government and the LHC have different priorities”.
Prior to introducing any reforms, the CrPC needs to be amended, which could only be done by the federal government. “It is incumbent upon provincial governments to ask the centre to make amendments to the CrPC before reviving the magistracy,” they added.
