LAHORE: The Punjab police on Thursday informed the Lahore High Court that all challans (investigation reports) had been filed with the trial courts of the province bringing the toll down to zero.

Chief Justice Aalia Neelum was hearing a matter of delay in the submission of challans in criminal cases by the police.

During the hearing, a provincial law officer presented a report on behalf of the inspector general of police indicating that challans for all cases had been submitted to the trial courts across the province.

The chief justice observed that the report would be verified from the trial courts before passing any decision on the matter.

Prosecutor General (PG) of Punjab Syed Farhad Ali Shah said all challans had been submitted and there were no more pending cases. He said the report included details of all trial judges and the cases.

Asked about the number of cases, the prosecutor general said 380,000 challans had now been submitted, reducing the pending cases to zero.

He asked the court to also include sessions courts in the case related to digitisation of police records.

Chief Justice Neelum observed that the matter would also be considered at a later stage.

Hearing a bail petition by an accused in a narcotics case, the chief justice had taken notice of non-submission of the challans in millions of criminal cases registered in Punjab.

In August, the PG had filed a report revealing that from 2017 to July 2024, 5.3 million cases were registered and challans for 4.29 million cases were submitted during the past eight years.

On Oct 1, the court was informed that the pendency of the investigation reports had been reduced from 380,294 to 20,979.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024