As many as 15 seats of judges are vacant in Lahore High Court, while another judge, Justice Masood Jahangir, will retire in December.
According to sources, the elevation of one or two judges from the Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court is expected in September, after which the number of vacant seats may increase to 18 by the end of the year.
However, the appointment of new judges to the high court has not been started yet.
The workload is increasing at the principal seat in Lahore and benches in Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur due to the shortage of judges.
The sources said there was a shortage of 500 civil judges and 100 additional and session judges in the subordinate judiciary across Punjab.
Currently, a total of 1,721 judges are performing duties in the subordinate judiciary of Punjab, including 150 district and sessions judges, 524 additional D&SJs, 108 senior civil judges and 939 civil judges.
About 500,000 cases are pending in the subordinate judiciary of the province.
The most senior judge in the subordinate judiciary in Punjab is Masroor Zaman of Rawalpindi, who is posted at the Anti-Corruption Court. He is due to retire on March 20, next year.
The senior-most sessions judge after him are Habibullah of Lahore who will retire on September 9 and Uzma Chughtai who is scheduled to retire on March 26.
Four sessions judges in the province will retire this year 11 in 2023.
According to an a official, a proposal to recruit 500 civil judges and 120 additional session judges has been approved for expeditious hearing of cases.
The recruitments are likely to be completed in four months.
The official also said the new judges of the LHC were expected to be appointed in October.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2022.
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