FAISALABAD, April 8: The District Bar Association has reiterated its demand for a bench of the Lahore High Court in Faisalabad. The DBA, at a meeting presided over by its president Muhammad Hussain on Thursday , expressed dismay and concern over the long delay in this regard.

A resolution said that in April 2002, President Gen Pervez Musharraf had promised with the DBA representatives that a bench of the LHC would be set up in Faisalabad. But despite the passage of two years, no step has been taken and the matter has been put in the cold storages.

"Some influential groups and lobbies are working against the setting up of a bench of the LHC in Faisalabad for their ulterior motives. This is highly condemnable and uncalled for. The LHC benches had been working at Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur and Lahore but Faisalabad is being ignored," the resolution noted.

Another resolution claimed that all the divisional headquarters of the NWFP had benches of Peshawar High Court but the defunct Faisalabad division, having a population of over 9.7 million, was without this important legal forum. It said that if steps were not taken immediately to set up a bench of the LHC in Faisalabad, the DBA members would be left with no option but to come on roads.