KARACHI - Scores of high-profile cases of terrorism were moving at a snails pace in the Anti Terrorist Court (ATC) due to the life threats being faced by the special public prosecutors (SPP) of ATC from the banned outfits. Despite several requests from the prosecutors as well as from the home ministry to provide security to the public prosecutors of ATC, no initiative had been taken in this regard, sources told The Nation on Sunday. According to sources, after receiving several life threats, the public prosecutors of ATC were feeling insecure when they appear before the courts regarding proceedings of the high profile cases. One of the prosecutors on condition of anonymity told The Nation that since the new appointments of the current SPPs, they were receiving threats from the different outfits for not appearing before the courts especially in those cases in which their accomplices were facing trials. Sources said that a few of the SPPs had sent several letters to the DIG Administration to get security, but so far no initiative had been taken to protect the SPPs. It is worth noting that currently 11 courts of ATC are operating in Sindh. Three ATCs are functioning in Karachi while eight others are functioning in interior Sindh. The high profile cases under trials in ATC Karachi are Nishtar Park blast (in which among Abbas Qadri and other renowned activists belonging to Sunni Tehreek and others were killed); Sheraton Hotel bomb blast, bomb blasts in the US consulate, Hassan Turabi murder case and Rempa Plaza incident. Interestingly, the ATCs were operating under the Home Department since their formation, but the SPPs function under the prosecution general of Sindh that come under the law department, while they get salaries from the Home Department. One of the SPP told that they were getting step-motherly treatment from the Home Department. The SPPs are getting salaries after the delay of many weeks and that too after giving "chai paani" to some officials of the department. The prosecutors have been appointed in grade 19, but they have not been provided with the basic facilities as they used to get as public prosecutors of ATC. Despite pursuing trials in the court on behalf of the state against the notorious terrorists, they use public transport to reach the court, while in case of unavailability of the public transport they reach there by walking. The source also said that on the request of Prosecutor General Sindh, the provincial Home Department has written several letters to Provincial Police Officer (PPC) of Sindh for providing security to the SPP, but the matter was still lying unattended. In fact, after the Police Order 2002 enforcement, Home Department had lost its powers, said an officer of Home Department. He added that now Home Department could only play the role of a bridge between the federal government and the provincial police officer.