LAHORE: The Punjab government has allocated an amount of Rs500 million for interest-free loans to judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in budget estimates for financial year 2022-23.

The previous government had released an amount of over Rs600m as loans to the judges of the LHC during the year 2021-22.

In its March 18th meeting, the previous provincial cabinet approved releasing some Rs358.5m interest-free loans to 12 judges of the LHC for construction of houses. Since all the 12 judges will retire in the next three to eight years, the government will continue deducting loan installments from their salaries and later from pension payments.

At present the LHC has 47 judges against its sanctioned strength of 60.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2022