SAHIWAL: Around 50 per cent posts of civil and session judges sanctioned for Sahiwal district are lying vacant, not only overburdening the lower judiciary, but also causing delay in conclusion of the cases.

According to a handout issued by District and Sessions Judge (D&SJ) Rana Masood Akhtar, out of the sanctioned posts of 20 session and 46 civil judges in the district, 10 and 21 are laying vacant, respectively.

It said that till June 2018 the session and civil courts handled, resolved and settled total 4,672 cases, and of these 1,319 by the session court and 3,352 by the civil ones.

It said that despite such an acute shortage of the judges, the lower judiciary in the district had delivered to the maximum.

Giving details of the resolved cases, it said of total 3,352 civil court cases, 2,186 were of civil (Dewani) nature and 1,167 of criminal (Foujdari) nature.

About the session court’s performance, the handout said that of 1,319 cases, 915 and 404 were resolved in Sahiwal and Chichawatni tehsils, respectively.

It is said that in 2017, a separate family court was established on the district court premises that resolved 119 cases and also got registered 149 new ones.

It said the cases filed by the overseeas Pakistanis were handled on priority basis and total 16 such cases were resolved, providing relief to the expats.

The handout said although the judges were busy in election duties, all efforts were being made to provide relief to litigants.

It said till June 2018 the civil and session courts had a backlog of 2,832 and 16,901 cases, respectively.

It means that 19,733 cases are lying pending in the lower courts only in Sahiwal district.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2018