Slow and steady does it

KARACHI: Around 50,000 criminal cases are pending in different courts in the province. These are the cases in which charges were made under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) till April 30, 2009, explained Sindh Law Minister Muhammad Ayaz Soomro in response to a question at the Sindh Assembly session.

Giving details of the cases he said that in Karachi East zone 8,860 cases are pending. Meanwhile, 1,986 cases in West zone, 4,350 cases in Karachi’s South zone, 3,698 cases in Karachi Central zone and 4,324 cases are pending in the Malir district of the city.

Regarding other districts he said that 3,482 cases are in process in Hyderabad, 1,677 in Badin, 913 in Jamshoro, 907 in Thatta, 313 in Matiari, 1,445 in Dadu, 723 in Tando Mohammed Khan, 200 Tando Allahyar, 14,23 in Mirpurkhas,991 in Sanghar, 197 in Thar, Mithi, 371 in Umerkot, 2,208 in Sukkur, 2,156 in NausheroFeroze, 2,612 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 3,822in Ghotiki, 2,877 Khairpur, 1,403 in Larkana, 1070 in Jacobabad, 15,72 in Qambar Shahdadkot, 1,100 in Shikarpur and 1,816 in Kashmore, Kandkot.

The reason for the piles of cases that have been in court since last year is a shortage of law officers. According to the minister, not a single law officer had been appointed by the previous government but the ruling government had appointed around 1,000 public prosecutors and hopefully the delay in these cases would be aptly and swiftly dealt with.

Responding to a question asked by Heel Ismail Soho about how many courts had been set up from 2002 to 2008, Soomro said that four district and sessions courts have been established in Umerkot, Qamber-Shahdadkot, Kashmore and Jamshoro districts.

Moreover, 24 family courts in each judicial district of the province have also been set up.

When asked by a member of the assembly, Arif Mustafa Jatoi, whether the Sindh government had really changed the province’s spellings from ‘Sind’ to ‘Sindh’, the law minister explained that the spelling had been changed on March 3, 1989.

The notification for this change had been issued by the then Chief Secretary of Sindh.

He said that a hostel for lawyers will be built in Karachi so that visiting lawyers from across the country can stay there when the come to visit the city. Ten million rupees have been allocated for the financial assistance of lawyers above 70, added the law minister.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2010.