Shortage of judges causing huge backlog of cases in superior judiciary
Pakistan
380,539 cases pending in superior courts of Pakistan
LAHORE (Dunya Investigation Cell) – The country’s superior judiciary is dealing with a huge backlog of 380,539 cases at the start of the year 2023.
There were 51,744 pending cases in the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC), 103 in the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), 17,104 in Islamabad High Court (IHC), 179,425 in the Lahore High Court (LHC), 85,781 in the Sindh High Court (SHC), 41,911 in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and 4,471 cases in the Balochistan High Court (BHC).
The reason behind the pending cases is said to be the acute shortage of the judges.
Presently there are two seats vacant in the Supreme Court, six in FSC, two in IHC, five in SHC and three in PHC.
As per SC, on June 1, the total number of pending cases was 53,949. By June 15th, 1,164 new cases were filed and during that period 566 cases were decided.
There are total 54, 547 pending cases in the apex court. The expected number of cases is likely to be decided in the SC during the one year is 13,584 that is visibly less than the cases decided during the previous year.
The SC record indicated over 22,081 new cases were filed and 24, 303 cases decided during February 2, 2022 to February 25, 2023.
The apex court ‘s sanctioned strength of judges is 17 but 15 are working while two positions are vacant.
Similarly, there are eight sanctioned seats of judges in FSC, but six judges are working.
As many as 19 seats are vacant in the LHC as only 41 judges are working against the sanctioned seats of 60.
There are 10 sanctioned positions of judges in IHC but eight judges are working.
Five seats are also vacant in the SHC as 35 judges are presently working against the sanctioned 40 seats.
The PHC has also 20 seats but 17 judges are working while the BHC is also facing shortfall of two judges.
