Judicial policy: 306 murder cases pending for four years or more

Court has a Dec 31 deadline for deciding cases from 2008 or earlier.


Rana Yasif November 20, 2012

LAHORE:


There are 306 murder cases from 2008 and earlier still pending at the District and Sessions Court, though the National Judicial Policy states that these cases must be decided by December 31, 2012.


The oldest pending murder case in the District and Sessions Court dates back to 1985. There are also two cases from 1999, two from 2000, one from 2001, three from 2002, seven from 2003, 19 from 2004, 37 from 2005, 53 from 2006, 75 from 2007 and 106 murder cases from 2008 pending in the 12 trial courts for murder cases.

In the murder case dating back to 1985, a man named Mehdi Hassan filed a private complaint accusing two inspectors, two sub-inspectors, five assistant sub-inspectors, and seven constables of murdering Muhammad Ashiq. The complainant has said in court that the case is not being decided because of the influence of the accused officials. He said that whenever the case was near a conclusion, it was transferred to another judge.



District and Sessions Judge Nazir Ahmed Ganjana said that judges had been directed not to watch the clock, but to work. He said that the cases were pending not because judges didn’t work hard enough, but for other reasons.

Asked what sort of action could be expected if, as is certain, the old murder cases are not decided by the end of the year, Ganjana said that he had received no directions in this regard. He said that he expected the deadline to decide the cases to be extended. He said that lawyers should cooperate with judges so that justice could be dispensed to the masses.

Talking to The Express Tribune, lawyers, litigants and police officials blamed each other for the high pendency. The lawyers accused the police of laziness and corruption, saying they often left big holes in investigations, submitted challans late or failed to protect and produce witnesses.

The police officials accused the lawyers of delaying cases against their clients using various “underhanded” tactics, such as not turning up for hearings or getting cases transferred to other judges when they are about to be decided.

The litigants said that judges had to hear hundreds of cases a day and many tended to just hand out adjournments.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2012.

COMMENTS (1)

HA | 11 years ago | Reply

The Chief Justice should focus on this rather than targeting the president and elected members of the parliament. The constitution should be amended to create a forum / body which should hold the judiciary accountable for their poor performance. How can a politician promise cheap and timely justice when he has no power over the judiciary.

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