Pindi courts issue 56 death penalties in 2023

Civil judges forced to hear 70 to 90 cases per day

RAWALPINDI:

The previous year proved to be a busy year for Rawalpindi’s judiciary as local courts issued verdicts in 55,694 cases of various natures, handing down death penalties to 56 people.

Sessions courts, civil magistrates, and special courts convicted 8,312 accused individuals and imposed fines ranging between Rs5,000 to Rs50,000 on convicts involved in fleecing customers, kite flying, alcohol consumption, flouting anti-dengue SOPs, and cases of serious natures.

A breakdown of court verdicts revealed that sessions and special courts of the district sentenced 501 accused. Out of which 56 were sentenced to death, 21 to life imprisonment, and 185 to 5 to 14 years in prison. In total, these courts fined over Rs25.9 million from accused persons in one year.

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The Rawalpindi district has 103 civil magistrates and special courts. Whereas in Punjab, there are a total of 1,738 judges, including 152 district and session judges, 519 additional district and session judges, 110 senior civil judges and 957 civil judges.

However, the populous district faces a shortage of at least 25 judges. As a result, civil judges are forced to hear 70 to 90 cases per day while session judges hear 25 to 40 cases per day.

Judges in Rawalpindi are overwhelmed but their performance is fine, said District Bar Association President Faisal Khan Niazi.

He noted that the district witnessed fewer lawyers' strikes in 2023 as compared to the year before that. “The number of judgments being passed has also increased.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2024.