No witness prosecuted for perjury by LHC

Total number of cases decided by the court was over 48,000

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court in a written reply regarding judicial reforms case said that it did not prosecute even a single witness for perjury under section 193-196 Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) during last three years.

Umer Gilani, Hadiya Aziz, Muhammad Haider Imtiaz, Attaullah Hakim Kundi and Raheel Ahmed are the five lawyers who moved the case under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, making all registrars of high courts, federal government, provincial governments and others respondents. The applicants seek directions from Supreme Court for improving the capacity and performance of administration of justice.

Meanwhile, Umer Gilani one of the petitioners told The Express Tribune that LHC reply is comparatively good as compared to Islamabad High Court’s concise statement.

However, he said that the high court reply does not contain any response to the “average time taken presently for a litigant to obtain a decree, order of judgment from various courts and tribunals under the control of high courts.”

Gilani believes that the reply confirms the allegation levelled in the petition that despite strict laws existing regarding imposition of costs and perjury, the judiciary rarely enforces them.

The LHC has submitted a 36 page reply after the passage of four months. LHC conducted quantitative research. The high court’s research has answered questions regarding the number of cases on which the costs of litigation on the losing party in civil cases, especially frivolous cases and the number of cases on which the courts and tribunals  have started proceeding against witnesses who commit perjury.

The reply said that the Lahore High Court itself imposed costs of litigation in three cases only with the total amount of costs awarded being Rs85,000 during the last 3 years. The High Court did not prosecute even a single witness for perjury.  The total number of cases decided by the LHC in this period was over 48,000.

The LHC also informed that courts subordinate to the Lahore High Court awarded costs of litigation in 590 cases only with the total amount of costs awarded being Rs1.816 million. Tribunals and special courts subordinate to the Lahore Court awarded costs in 6,950 cases with the total amount of costs being around Rs17.9 million. It also adds that prosecution had started in 90 cases.

The reply says that the total number of courts and tribunals subordinate to the Lahore High Court is more than 2,400. These courts and tribunals decided over 8.4 million cases during the period under study.

The LHC reply disclosed that four committees of LHC judges have been constituted for giving proposed amendments in high courts rules for the enforcement of fundamental rights of access to justice.  The committees met numerous times to draft and discuss the amendments to procedural laws.

With regards to the Article 212 of the Constitution, a committee on Alternate Dispute Resolution was constituted, which presented “Mediation Rules 2017” before the LHC judges for evolving mechanism on Alternate Dispute Resolution.

It has been told that mediation centers have been framed in different districts of Punjab. The reports are being received regarding the performance of mediation centres on a regular basis.