LAHORE: The Lahore Bar Association (LBA) on Saturday expressed concern over thin attendance of judicial officers in the subordinate courts of the provincial metropolis leading to adjournment in thousands of cases.

“More than 80pc of judges were on casual leave on Saturday,” LBA Vice President Karam Nizam Rawn told Dawn.

He said the bar was surprised to learn the low attendance of the judicial officers and decided to take up the matter with District and Sessions Judge Qaiser Nazir Butt, who was also on leave.

Mr Rawn said it was a question the bar would try to find an appropriate answer as to how the sessions judge could sanction casual leave to a large number of judicial officers. He said there had been a common impression, which he claimed was wrong, that it were the lawyers only who caused delay in cases.

The vice president said as per data collected by the bar there were only 30 out of around 125 judges at Aiwan-Adl, eight out of 76 at sessions court and three out of 15 judicial magistrates at district court on Saturday.

He dispelled the impression that the judicial officers would have gone on leave in protest against a dispute of their colleague with a group of lawyers the other day. He said the matter had been resolved amicably by the D&SJ.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2020