Chief justice’s visit: Contract of three ATC judges to expire soon

Serving district judges to replace retiring ATC ones.

KARACHI: The Sindh home department has issued a notification announcing that the contract of three judges of the Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATC) expires in the next few days.

The contract of judge, Syed Hasan Shah Bokhari, of ATC I will expire on January 21 while the contract of Anan Ram Hotwani of ATC-II will expire on January 22 and Sukkur ATC’s Ahmed Nawaz Shaikh expires on January 23.

This is the first step towards implementing an order given by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry during his recent visit to Karachi. He said that serving district and sessions judges are expected to be appointed as judges of ATCs in Sindh. The chief justice disapproved the performance of the ATCs in Sindh after he observed that the number of pending cases in Sindh is four times that of other provinces. This is perhaps because retired people have been appointed as judges, he had said.

The Sindh government was told to improve the working and results of the ATCs, an official told The Express Tribune.

The home department notification said that the stated date from which the three judges cease to hold their respective court was as per the decision made at the meeting presided over by the CJP. It will bring marked improvements in the working of these courts all across Sindh, a home department official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st,  2011.