MANSEHRA: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel said on Saturday that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa judiciary had been facing shortage of judges and judicial officers, but the provincial government was hesitant to fill these vacant posts despite demands in this regard.

“We have been facing shortage of 100 civil and 30 additional judges in the subordinate judiciary in the province and sought appointments on these posts, but the government is hesitant to fill these posts immediately,” said Justice Miankhel while speaking at the district bar here. District Bar Association president Munir Hussain Lughmani also spoke on occasion.

The chief justice said that despite shortage of judicial officers the judiciary had been doing well to provide justice to the people. “We have also sought approval for establishment of 25 family courts and 10 additional courts in the province, but in response the government sanctioned only two family courts,” he said.

Earlier, the chief justice visited two proposed sites in the city and its suburbs for construction of a judicial complex and said that work on the complex would be started soon.

The chief justice said that the judiciary and bar were stakeholders in the new judicial complex and lawyers’ opinion in execution of the judicial complex project would be respected. He said that such judicial complexes would also be built in Balakot and Oghi, but it would take some time.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Lughmani said that litigants were suffering because of the shortage of judicial offices in the district. He said that there was one family court in the district and a judge had been hearing over 1,000 cases while litigants coming from remote areas of the district often faced difficulties.

He said that there was enough space for construction of a judicial complex in Balakot. The bar president also urged the chief justice to play his role in review of the recently-introduced judicial policy.

STUDENTS SUFFER: The people of union council Karori have demanded of the government to reconstruct the sole girl’s primary school in Danda Kholia area as its students have to sit in the fields to take classes.

Speaking at a press conference in Oghi on Saturday, former union nazim of Karori, Hafiz Mohammad Younus, said that the school building was destroyed in 2005 earthquake, but the government failed to reconstruct it. He said that the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority had started the reconstruction work in 2007, but it was suspended after just laying of the foundation.

“Our daughters are getting education in the fields in extreme weather conditions for the last many years, but neither the Erra nor the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is showing interest to rebuild the school,” said Mr Younus.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2014