Mianwali placed under Rawalpindi Bench

LHC notification likely next month as CJ approves plan

RAWALPINDI:

The areas of Mianwali, Sarai Alamgir and Gujrat’s Kharian will be included in the jurisdiction of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench with the notification likely on Wednesday, November 1, after LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti gave his assent to the proposal.

One of the reasons for the decision was the completion of roads related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (Cpec) project which has drastically reduced travel time. It would previously take over five hours to travel from Mianwali and Kharian to Rawalpindi. Now, that has been reduced to two hours and fifteen minutes.

The distance from Mianwali to Lahore – where the principal seat of the LHC is located – is five hours and thirty minutes. The distance to Lahore from some tehsils – including Kharian and Sarai Alamgir – is even more.

While infrastructure projects mean this travel time is decreasing, Lahore is around 100 kilometres further from Mianwali than Rawalpindi.

It was due to these considerations that office holders of various Bars and legal fraternities including the Rawalpindi Bar’s Faisal Khan Niazi and Mianwali district Bar’s Salimullah Khan and Babar Khan met with the LHC CJ Bhatti in this regard.

Justice Bhatti approved the suggestions proposed by the Bar representatives of Mianwali, Rawalpindi and the high court Bar, with the notification likely to be issued on November 1.

Following the change, police stations of district Mianwali would also report to the Rawalpindi District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital for medical boards after any accident. The district bars of Mianwali, Kharian and Sarai Alamgir also included in the cricket tournament of the High Court Bar Association last year.

According to Niazi, the decision would benefit the people, lawyers and police of Mianwali district, and sub-districts Kharian and Sarai Alamgir.

He said that by the second week of November, all cases and appeals of Mianwali, Kharian, and Sarai Alamgir pending in the Lahore High Court principal seat would be shifted to the Rawalpindi Bench.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2023.