Islamabad:
Despite an increase in the number of judges, the duration of the Supreme Court could not be reduced substantially, as the number of pending cases has increased since February when six judges were raised to the Apex Court, according to data available on the Supreme Court website on Thursday.
The data has shown that 57,089 cases were in the process of August 6, despite the fact that seven judges have been appointed in the past six months. Currently, the Apex Court does not work at full power due to the summer holidays, and the duration increases day by day; 56,892 cases were pending last week.
When the chief judge (CJ) Yahya Afridi assumed his duties, 59,435 cases were pending before the Apex court, which then included 16 permanent judges and two ad hoc. Subsequently, six new judges were appointed in February, followed by the elevation of a judge from the High Court of Lahore at the Apex Court in April.
Despite these seven new appointments, the suspension has not been considerably reduced. In March, 55,702 cases were pending, which now increased to more than 57,000. However, it is also a fact that 60,507 cases were pending in September from last year, showing a slight improvement over time.
CJ Afridi has accelerated the elimination of criminal affairs, in particular those involving death sentences. A lawyer said that if the suspension is reduced by 3,000 cases each year, then over the next three years, the overall reduction will be substantial.
There may be several reasons for the substantial lack of reduction in the suspension. One of them is that the Supreme Court has remained visibly divided since the adoption of the 26th constitutional amendment.
A complete meeting of the court held on October 28 of last year had adopted the case management plan 2023 – the original idea of judge Mansoor Ali Shah – to approach the growing backlog. However, we learn that this plan is no longer followed.
The constitutional benches, created after the 26th amendment, consumed a lot of time to hear the cases linked to the military trials of civilians, the transfer of judges to the High Court of Islamabad (CIH) and the allocation of reserved seats.
These constitutional benches have not yet given detailed judgments in these three crucial cases, the results of which have had a significant impact on the independence of the judiciary, fundamental rights and democracy of the country.
Two minority judges issued detailed opinions in the affairs of military courts, but the detailed majority verdict is still expected.
