Case backlog: Top law officers issued notices in judge shortage petition

There are 24 vacancies in Sindh.

KARACHI: The attorney general of Pakistan, advocate general of Sindh and other officials were put on notice for November 24 in a petition on why the Sindh High Court is working with less than half the judges.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Imam Bux Baloch had earlier heard petitioner Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi of the Human Rights Commission of South Asia (not to be confused with the HRCP) who appeared in person.

The SHC should have 42 judges but right now only 16 are working. There are 24 vacancies. The petitioner argued that each day hundreds of cases were fixed before the division benches at the principal seat in Karachi and circuit benches but only one-fourth or less were being heard.

The benches are overburdened and the judges are overworked, he said. The dispensation of justice is being obstructed by the shortage of judges and litigants are suffering the most.

The petitioner has asked the court to direct the authorities to appoint judges, speed up the process and ensure it takes place transparently and on merit so that people have the benefit of an independent judiciary.

On Tuesday, the petitioner argued that unless something is done soon, the backlog of cases would become insurmountable.

After hearing the petitioner, the bench ordered for the pre-admission notices to be issued to the attorney general Pakistan, advocate general of Sindh and all other respondents for November 24.

The bench declined to entertain an application by the petitioner to form a larger bench and asked him to file a proper application before the chief justice of the SHC.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2011.