LAHORE: Cases decided by the Lahore High Court during the last three months are higher in proportion to the cases instituted during the period for the first time in the court’s history, official statistics maintain.

The data shows that there were 156,293 cases pending before the principal seat and other three benches of the court till March 30, 2015 when Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik took oath of his office. Of them 88,679 cases were pending at principal seat (Lahore), 40,367 at Multan, 12,911 at Bahawalpur and 14,336 at Rawalpindi bench.

The official data reveals that during the last three months (March 31 to July 3) 57,678 cases were decided while 48,359 new cases instituted.

At an Iftar party held in Punjab Judicial Academy the other day, the chief justice quoted the statistics and said the LHC made a history and the number of pending cases were decreasing. He said the cases instituted before 2007 were declared as “oldest cases” and their cause lists had been printing on red-paper so the judges would not adjourn such cases.

Besides other judges of the court, Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Azam Nazir Tarar, Punjab Bar Council Vice Chairperson Farah Ejaz Baig and office-bearers of bar associations of all benches were also present at the Iftar.

The data shows that 14,753 cases of oldest category were pending adjudication. Of them 6,826 were at principal seat (Lahore), 6,042 at Multan, 986 at Bahawalpur and 899 at Rawalpindi bench. However, a total of 4,096 oldest cases are now pending with the court.

Bahawalpur bench has cleared the entire backlog of oldest cases, while 2,138 cases are still pending at principal seat, 1,713 at Multan and 200 at Rawalpindi bench. This backlog includes the cases instituted in 80s and 90s as well.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2015

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