LAHORE, Aug 27: The court of special judge (central) constituted to hear cases of illegal immigration has been working without a full-time judge for the past 11 months.
A backlog of around 700 pending cases has overloaded the judicial record, as no real disposal has taken place since Sept 20, 2002, when Chaudhry Ehsan, the then special judge, was transferred to Kasur.
Banking court judge Shabbir Husain Chattha has been officiating as the duty judge since November 2002. He conducts two courts daily, as he hears the banking cases till noon and conduct the special court for the next three hours.
This special court had been set up to hear cases filed under the Immigration Ordinance, the Passport Act 1974 and the Anti-Corruption Act 1976. The Federal Investigation Agency prepares the cases under the three laws, and forwards these to the special court for their regular hearing.
The court has the jurisdiction to hear the corruption cases against the employees working in federal departments, while the cases filed against those employed by the provincial government are heard by the anti-corruption courts.
Under the prevalent rules, the acting judge cannot decide the cases, except those urgent, including the bail matters and those for which a disposal time limit has been specified by the Lahore High Court. As regards the rest of the cases, they are adjourned by the court staff since they cannot be taken up by the duty judge.
The duty judge told Dawn on Wednesday that no deadline for the expiry of his additional engagement had been given to him, though he had performed this duty with utmost dedication. He expressed his inability to comment on the reason for such a long delay in the appointment of the regular incumbent.
The judge also refused to disclose whether he was being paid additional remuneration for this job.
Sources in the LHC claimed that a summary had been forwarded to the chief justice for the appointment of a regular judge for the special court, as a recent appointment to this court in Rawalpindi has already been made. This will expedite appointment in Lahore. A summary regarding the total number of cases currently pending with special court of Lahore had also been demanded by the high-ups.
“The most probable reason for the delay in the appointment of a regular incumbent could be an ambiguity arising out of the announcement of the Anti-Corruption Strategy by the NAB chairman earlier this year. Under this policy, certain wings of the FIA were to be handed over to the NAB, and there was a speculation that the corruption cases to be heard by the special court would be transferred to the accountability courts,” the sources disclosed.
They said since the FIA-NAB merger had not taken its final shape so far, a duty judge had appointed till the settlement of this issue. However, keeping in view the increasing complaints of the lawyers, the authorities concerned had decided to finally appoint the full-time working judge, they added.