LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq on Friday inaugurated the country’s first evening court in Lahore to deal with family and minors’ custody cases with a view to keeping children of separated parents away from traditional environment of courts.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony held at the Lahore Judicial Complex, Chief Justice Haq said that the purpose of establishing the evening court was to facilitate litigants within the available resources. If creation of new courts was difficult, the existing courts could be utilised to meet the growing litigation by making them function in double shifts, he added.

The CJ said performance of other entities such as hospitals and schools could also be increased by utilising them in double shifts. The functioning of the evening court would benefit schoolchildren and working parents, he added.

Cases will be referred to the facility with the consent of both litigant parties

He pointed out that Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had hailed the setting up of the evening court in a letter he wrote to the high court. He said many other projects of public welfare were under way and would be implemented soon.

Earlier, the senior puisne judge of the LHC, Justice Sardar Shamim Ahmad, and District and Sessions Judge (D&SJ) Abid Qureshi spoke. Justice Ahmad congratulated the chief justice on the achievement and said evening courts should also be established in other districts of the province to ensure dispensation of swift justice.

D&SJ Qureshi pointed out that cases would be referred to the evening court with the consent of both litigant parties.

The evening court is hearing cases under the West Pakistan Family Courts Act 1964 and Guardians & Wards Act 1890 from 2pm to 7pm.

It’s a pilot project and will be extended to 36 other districts if required for expeditious decision of family cases.

The LHC chief justice recalled that besides the evening court, another remarkable step had been taken a week ago to reduce the suffering of litigants. Now all orders of the Punjab judiciary were available on the official website and anyone could get their copy or read them, he pointed out.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2018