New judges expected to reduce case pendency

LHC to have the highest number of judges it has ever had.

LAHORE: With the elevation of eight more judges, the number of judges at the Lahore High Court has risen to 51 – the highest in the court’s history.

Justice Shah Khawar, Justice James Joseph, Justice Zafarullah Khan Khakwani, Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza, Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi, Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, Justice Sikandar Zulqarnain Saleem and Justice Faisal Zaman Khan were sworn in on March 22.

With the increase in number of judges, litigants can look forward to quicker disposal of cases. The LHC has been struggling to reduce the pendency of cases and the newly appointed judges will be expected to share the burden of their senior colleagues. Even though civil matters usually take years to be decided by the LHC, it is the people languishing in prisons who suffer the most from the problem of pendency. A considerable number of jailbirds get acquitted on appeals against their conviction. The LHC is currently hearing appeals against death penalty that had been filed in 2010. Thus an appeal against death conviction is likely to be fixed for hearing four years after filing. Previously, it could take six to eight years but the LHC’s administration has tried to rduce that time.

The number of judges will go down to 50 when Justice Ijaz Ahmed retires on March 31. Among the judges, 31 are confirmed while 20 are additional judges who will be confirmed after a year.

National Testing Service

In a landmark judgment, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah on Saturday declared the National Testing Service illegal and directed the Higher Education Commission to ensure that no more tests were given until and unless a national service was constituted through proper legislation.

The judge ruled that the existing arrangement between the NTS and the HEC will continue till May 30.

Malik Ishaq released

Another important ruling, last week, was passed by a division bench of the LHC that granted bail to Malik Ishaq, leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, in two cases of inciting hatred through his speeches.

He was accused of hurting religious sentiments of adherents of other religions. Ishaq has been behind bars since April 2013.

PIC medicine reaction

Last week, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court disposed of a suo motu notice in the PIC spurious medicine’s scandal after Efroze Chemicals informed the court that the victims’ families were being compensated regularly in line with the court’s directions. The company had manufactured Isotab, the medicine that had led to the deaths of around 100 cardiac patients at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology.

The company informed the court that it was paying Rs400,000 as compensation to each bereaved family in instalments and Rs50,000 to each patient affected. He said several families had been paid the entire amount.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2014.