LHC chief justice blames backlog of cases on lawyers' frequent strikes

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Sunday blamed increasing backlog of cases on lawyers’ frequent strikes, saying more cases would have been pulled off, if strikes had not taken place.

Addressing a ceremony here, the chief justice said around 2.1 million cases were disposed of this year as compared to 2 million cases decided last year.

He said more than 0.2 million cases would have been decided, if there had been no strikes on the part of lawyers, dispelling the impression that judges were not working diligently.

He said 3,840 strikes took place in just 10 months, adding to the backlog of cases.

Shah called on lawyers to have their grievance redressed through talks. The office-bearers of lawyers’ associations should meet him to get their legitimate complaints addressed, he offered.

Probably, lawyers were unhappy with him for bringing improvement in the judicial system, he opined.

The chief justice said whoever misbehaves with judges will be punished.

He called upon the lawyers community to play its role in strengthening the institution, saying they can fix the system together.

He lamented that there was a single judge for every 62,000 people in the province. If there will be 10,000 judges in the province, we will be able to catch up the judicial systems of the developed countries, he added.

He said that judges deserved appreciation for discharging their responsibilities despite hardships.

Taking notice of the media reports about illegal promotions of judges, the chief justice clarified that no judge was promoted in violation of merit.