LARKANA: Cases pertaining to banking issues continue to pile up as the two banking courts in Larkana have been without judges for more than a year, according to sources.

The sources told Dawn on Friday that banking court-I had been without its presiding officer since May 19, 2018, and banking court-II had had no judge since August 2017.

They said banking court-II in Sukkur was also without its head for three months. Scores of matters in banks were waiting for the banking courts to become operational, said the sources.

At present, around 300 cases of Zarai Taraqiati Bank of Pakistan alone were ready to be filed in the banking courts, which were bound to decide cases within 30 days, the sources said.

The ministry of law and justice, which was to appoint the judges after the prime minister’s approval, had put on hold installation of biometric system in the courts till their presiding officers were hired, said the sources.

Besides, the sources said, the courts’ staff had been waiting for promotions for 20 years, and cited case of a lower-division clerk who was appointed in 1986 and was still stuck in the same grade.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2019