KARACHI: With a conviction rate of 7.73 per cent, district courts of Sindh disposed of 148,886 cases and sentenced accused in 11,503 cases in the seven months of the current year, it emerged on Sunday.

Around 102,393 cases — including litigation in civil, criminal and family matters — are still pending trial before the district courts.

The total backlog of pending cases stood at 97,634 across the province, as recorded on Dec 31, 2017.

According to collective data, 27 judicial districts of the province acquitted accused in 20,666 cases from January to July 28. The acquittal rate stood at 13.9pc.

Antiterrorism courts convict 223 in 1,742 cases

However, the collective conviction rate of four Karachi district courts stood at 8.6pc while acquittal rate stood at 14.9pc. South topped with the highest conviction rate of 12.76pc while district Central with lowest of 6.85pc.

Karachi-South district courts decided 10,700 cases with 1,366 convictions, East courts 11,117 cases with 829 convictions, West courts 10,278 cases with 752 convictions and Central 9,157 cases with 628 convictions.

Malir district courts disposed of 9,902 cases with 3,386 convictions. The conviction rate stood at 34.19pc.

In Karachi’s four fours district, around 25,764 cases — nearly 25.16pc of the total backlog in the province’s subordinate judiciary — are pending disposal.

A total 102,393 cases were pending trial in courts of 27 districts.

Karachi-East district courts topped with the highest number of 15,532 cases pending trial, South has 11,839, West has 10,836, Central has 10,232 cases while Malir has 5,527 pending cases.

The overall statistics suggested that the contesting parties in 2,672 cases opted for compromise while 163 cases were decided through mediation.

The Hyderabad district courts have 7,669 cases, Dadu 2,446 cases, Badin 1,609 cases, Thatta 1,604 cases, Mirpurkhas 1,760 cases, Sanghar 2,871 cases, Mithi 521 cases and Sukkur district courts have 4,428 pending cases.

Similarly, district courts of Shaheed Benazirabad have 3,249 cases, Naushahro Feroze 2,428 cases, Khairpur 4,666 cases, Ghotki 2,773 cases, Larkana 2,470 cases, Shikarpur 1,291 cases, Jacobabad 1,552 cases, Umerkot 944 cases, Jamshoro 1,095 cases, and Matiari 804 cases pending disposal.

Special courts’ disposal in five months

The four anti-corruption courts of the province decided 89 cases in five months from Jan 1 to May 31, according to the statistics.

The courts convicted accused in five cases with a conviction rate of 5.62pc.

Around 1,427 cases are still pending in the four anti-graft courts.

With a conviction ratio of 12.86pc, 53 antiterrorism courts of Sindh disposed of 1,742 cases — accused in 1,519 cases were acquitted and 223 were convicted.

The number of cases still pending trial is 3,905.

The anti-narcotic courts of Sindh disposed of 333 cases.

It convicted accused in 295 and the conviction rate stood at 88.59pc. About 25,937 cases are still pending trial.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2018