HYDERABAD: Senior lawyers of Supreme Court who practiced at Hyderabad courts demanded on Thursday the establishment of a circuit of the Sindh High Court in Mirpurkhas.

The lawyers who met here with former Advocate General Sindh and member of Pakistan Bar Council, Mohammad Yousuf Leghari, in the chair observed that there were only one bench and two circuits of the SHC in the province which catered to 14 districts and thereby faced huge burden of work.

Because of the backlog and institution of new cases, inordinate delay was caused in disposal of cases, leading to serious difficulties for litigants, said the meeting.

People of Mirpurkhas division had been demanding the circuit court for a long time and former chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah had also announced it would be established but the promise did not materialise, it said, adding there was a circuit court in every division in Punjab.

The meeting was attended by Mohammad Sachal Awan and Mansoor Ahmed Laghari, members Sindh Bar Council and Ghulamullah Chang, former president High Court Bar Association Hyderabad.

Ban on mutation of land relaxed

A two-judge bench of Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Amir Hani Muslim on Wednesday relaxed ban on the mutation of land of the Hyderabad Press Club and regretted that the spirit behind directives issued in Nov 28, 2012, Karachi lawlessness case had not been followed.

The applicants, Hyderabad Press Club and High Court Bar Association Cooperative Housing Society, had filed separate applications, requesting the court to relax the ban contained in its Nov 28 order and allow senior member of the Board of Revenue (BoR) and secretary of land utilisation to process their applications in the larger interest of public.

The bench ordered that keeping issue of implementation of Nov 28 order separately, the applications were being allowed and the authorities concerned might process them strictly in accordance with law and applicable rules and regulations.

The SC observed that the spirit behind that order had not been adhered to in its true perspective as a result of which much inconvenience was caused in several genuine cases.

“It was never the intention of this court that even in genuine cases the directions contained in the said order be made applicable for an unlimited period.”

Justice Amir Hani Muslim told the land utilisation member Aftab Ahmed who was present in the court that the ban was being relaxed only in these cases.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2016