Consumer courts scrapped across Punjab

Nearly 4,700 pending cases will be transferred to regular district and sessions courts

RAWALPINDI:

The Punjab government has approved the dissolution of 17 special consumer courts, originally established to ensure the merit-based provision of essential goods and services to consumers. Beginning in July, these specialised consumer protection courts will cease to function.

Instructions have already been issued to transfer all pending consumer cases from these courts to the respective District and Sessions Judges.

These courts were set up in 17 major cities across Punjab, including all 10 divisional headquarters: Rawalpindi, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Lahore, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur, and Dera Ghazi Khan.

Currently, 4,693 cases are pending in these courts. Hearings for these cases will be halted this week, after which they will be transferred to the Sessions Courts.

Once received, District and Sessions Judges will assign these cases to Additional District and Sessions Judges, who will be designated as Consumer Protection Courts for this purpose. The closure of these special courts is expected to save the Punjab government millions of rupees each month. Temporary staff employed by these courts will be relieved of their duties, while regular staff will be transferred to other judicial offices.

The District Bar Association and the High Court Bar Association Rawalpindi have expressed mixed reactions to this decision. Malik Asad, Secretary of the District Bar, and Ahsan Hameed Lillah, President of the High Court Bar, welcomed the move, calling it a step in the right direction. They suggested that similar special courts—such as those for anti-terrorism, customs, and anti-corruption—established by both federal and provincial governments in major cities should also be dissolved, with their cases shifted to regular sessions courts.

They further argued that regular session judges are less susceptible to political or administrative pressure and that this move would help restore public confidence in the judiciary while also reducing government expenditures.