PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has directed judicial officers of district judiciary and special courts to comply with the timeline recently fixed by National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) for disposing of different categories of cases including criminal trials of juveniles and family matters.

Peshawar High Court Registrar Mohammad Zeb Khan issued a circular to all the district and sessions judges and judges of special courts about “timeline for cases disposal.”

The circular states that based on feedback of district judiciary, NJPMC in its meeting held on Aug 18, 2025, prescribed uniform timelines for disposal of various categories of cases.

The circular included lists of categories of cases and prescribed timelines for their disposal.

According to the list, to decide declaratory suit (land disputes), a 24-month deadline has been fixed. The declaratory suit (inheritance dispute) and recovery suit (public revenue/money matters) will have to be decided within 12 months; and, cases of specific performance (contract enforcement) will have to be decided within 18 months.

A timeframe of six months has been fixed for injunction suit (land disputes), rent cases, family suit (dissolution/dower/maintenance/guardianship) and execution petitions of family court decree while for succession cases (uncontested) a deadline of two months has been set.

Other cases along with their respective timeframe include execution petitions on banking court decree and execution petitions on civil court decree within 12 months; and execution petition on rent matters within three months.

About criminal cases, criminal trial (juvenile offenders) has to be completed within six months; the criminal trial (punishment up to seven years) within 12 months; criminal trial (punishment above seven years) within 18 months; and criminal trial (murder) within 24 months.

Similarly, labour cases have to be concluded within six months’ time. “These timelines would be considered as one of the key performance indicators in judges’ performance evaluation and would be in-built at the Dashboard,” NJPMC stated in its meeting.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2025