ABBOTTABAD: Chief Justice Peshawar High Court Justice Yahya Afridi has said keeping in view the pendency of cases at Abbottabad circuit bench as it dealt with whole of Hazara division, three judges would be hearing the cases full time to provide quick and cheap justice to the litigants.

He was speaking at a ceremony on Monday after laying foundation stone of the bar room for Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad circuit bench which will be built at a cost of Rs90 million and will be completed in nine months.

Mr Afridi said all cases relating to environmental protection would be decided in the “green benches” on priority basis and regarding other cases, he asked the presidents of bar associations and members of the Bar Council to put forward proposals for evolving a mechanism to ensure early disposal of the cases.

He said in this regard a meeting would be held in Peshawar on July 22 to chalk out a strategy.

Earlier, president of PHBA Abbottabad circuit bench Arshad Awan presented the welcome address.

Rare head surgery: A four-year-old boy, who was operated upon for encephalocele disease, is showing remarkable improvement after the surgery at the neurosurgery department of Ayub Teaching Hospital Abbottabad conducted on July 13.

This was the first operation of its kind in the hospital, and the poor family was not charged any fee.

Asim from Mansehra had a head-like substance attached to the back of his head measuring 5kg, commonly called two heads, but he was successfully operated upon at the neurosurgery unit.

Neurosurgeon Dr Abdul Aziz told Dawn the boy was admitted to hospital with a rare medical condition called encephlocele in which the brain matter oozed out from a gap in the skull into a sac-like structure, giving the person’s head a grotesque appearance.

These are some of the symptoms of a birth defect, he said, adding after Asim was diagnosed with encephalocele he formed a team of dedicated doctors from neurosurgery department, and taking full risk spearheaded the operation together with a team of anesthetists and pediatricians who were responsible for the child’s health before and after the surgery.

Encephalocele, also known as cranium bifidum, is a neural tube defect.

The neural tube, Dr Aziz explained, is a narrow channel that folds and closes during the third and fourth weeks of pregnancy to form the brain and spinal cord.

He explained that the condition as one characterised by sac-like protrusions of the brain and the membranes that cover it through openings in the skull, which explains why the child was said to be having two heads.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2017