LARKANA, Aug 25 Over 300 under-trial prisoners (UTPs) lodged at Larkana central prison have been deprived of regular hearings of their cases as nine courts are lying vacant in Larkana district.

Sessions court sources told this correspondent that the courts of first, third, fourth, fifth, seventh additional session judges, fifth civil judge, additional sessions judge of Ratodero, civil judge-I and II were lying vacant. Out of the 12 seats of additional sessions judges lying vacant in Sindh, five were in Larkana, the sources said.

There are over 1,000 cases pending in the nine vacant courts in Larkana district whereas all the three courts of additional district and sessions judge of Ratodero, civil judge and judicial magistrate-I and II of Ratodero are lying vacant.

Court of the first additional sessions judge of Larkana fell vacant on May 27, 2009, where 278 cases are pending. Court of the fourth additional sessions judge is lying vacant since June 17, 2008, where 174 cases were pending and court of the third additional sessions is lying vacant since Jan 7, 2002.

In the court of fifth additional sessions judge, 136 cases are pending, which fell vacant on June 19, 2009, while the court of seventh additional sessions judge is lying vacant since Oct 11, 2005.

The sources said court of the fifth civil judge of Larkana was also lying vacant since Sept 9, 2005. In three courts of Ratodero, 442 cases were pending.

District Public Prosecutor Tariq Bhatti claimed that in the wake of judicial policy, disposal of cases had sped up. From June 2008 to July 2009, some 4,397 cases had been disposed off, he said.

The sessions court sources said that out of 9,557, some 1,078 cases had been disposed off in 13 courts in the district within two months (June and July 2009) since the judicial policy announcement.

Some cases of the UTPs' concerned with the vacant courts were at their final hearings and their non-production would linger on their stay in the jail, superintendent central prison of Larkana Qazi Nazir said.

Under the circumstances, the 'jail population' continued to increase, he said and labeled it one of the key irritants which encouraged the jail inmates to protest frequently.

The central prison of Larkana housed over 1,500 prisoners against its capacity of 450. “Most of the time, we do not send prisoners in their respective courts for they are lying vacant and sometimes the UTPs declined to go for their hearings,” he said.

In a few cases, UTPs went to the courts and got dates for next hearing, he said. At present, he said, 302 prisoners were in the central prison who did not go to the courts as they were vacant.

He said the Anti-Terrorist Court of Larkana was also lying vacant since May 11, 2009, and cases 56 prisoners facing serious charges could not be run. The first additional sessions judge was on leave for four months and the cases of 33 UTPs were in pending.

He said cases of 30 prisoners were related to the court of fourth additional sessions and 39 cases of prisoners pertained to fifth additional session which was lying vacant since June 18, 2008.

He said cases of 88 UTPs were lying pending in the court of additional sessions judge of Ratodero and 35 UTPs' cases were related to civil judge and judicial magistrate of Ratodero.

He said 21 UTPs belonged to Warah taluka, but due to non-availability of the civil judge and judicial magistrate for the last five months, they were not being produced in the court.

The district public prosecutor said there should be 21 public prosecutors to deal with cases in 21 courts, but only 13 were working in the district. Giving the break up, he said, eight additional district public prosecutors, four deputy district public prosecutors and one in-charge public prosecutors were performing their duties in the district.

Under the condition, judges are overloaded with the pending work. Instead of regularly sending prisoners to courts, the inside trials should be started as four courts were available in the premises of central prison of Larkana to minimise the burden, Mr Bhatti suggested.