April 2, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427

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LAHORE, April 1: The Lahore High Court judges committee on special courts in the Punjab has set a deadline of May 31 for the disposal of anti-terrorism cases registered prior to the year 2005.

The committee, which met here on Saturday with Justice Mian Mohammad Najamuz Zaman in the chair, said the decisions to set the deadline was taken to achieve the goal of early adjudication of offences as registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, which required decision on such cases within 30 days.

The committee met in pursuance of the directive issued by the Supreme Court judges committee on special courts, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, which met here last week and resolved that the disposal of cases under the ATA should be expedited to clear the backlog in the first phase.

The second phase, according to a decision, focused on strict implementation of the legal provision (of 30 days) for the decision on such cases by special courts.

The provincial committee decided that it would closely monitor the performance of the special courts so that a backlog was cleared at the earliest. The committee directed the judges of special courts in the first instance to submit year-wise comprehensive reports

about the number of pending cases.

The special courts, according to another decision of the committee, are also required to submit weekly and monthly reports on disposal of anti-terrorism cases to the body which has established a cell in the LHC Member Inspection Team’s office to keep a close liaison with special courts across the Punjab.

The committee said the cell was being set up for evaluating the performance of special courts. Their presiding officers were also told that they could contact the cell for any difficulty arising out of the working of special courts.

Provincial committees were set up by the Supreme Court body with the instructions that they should ensure the disposal of anti-terrorism cases within a period of 30 days as stipulated by the act.

They were required to keep a close liaison with the judges of special courts, inspectors-general of police and the government’s prosecution department to ensure that cases for special courts should be properly investigated, challans were submitted to courts promptly, and the service process was completed within the allotted time so that cases were decided within one month.