ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) decided over 11,000 cases in the year 2022, according to the official statistics of the court.

The IHC has decided 11,271 petitions in the previous year.

During this period, 10,267 fresh petitions have been instituted in the court.

Most of the petitions filed and decided in the IHC are related to enforcement of fundamental rights, land disputes, tax and revenue related matters, service matters, appeals against convictions, criminal appeals, environmental issues and the cases of highhandedness of public functionaries.

However, the number of pending petitions is 17,054. During the year 2022, prominent leaders who got relief from the IHC included chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan, former president Asif Ali Zardari, leader of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz and her spouse retired Capt Mohammad Safdar, former minister Ahsan Iqbal and PTI leader Shahbaz Gill.

Besides this, IHC issued numerous judgements to protect the fundamental rights of journalists and during the previous year, it also set aside controversial amendments in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).

For the year 2023, the IHC plans to dispose of petitions pertaining to government revenue and clear backlog involving recovery of billions of rupees.

At present, the IHC comprises of nine judges including its Chief Justice Aamer Farooq. Other judges include Senior Puisne Judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz.

Published in Dawn, january 2th, 2023