LAHOREJustice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa of the Lahore High Court on Saturday directed judges of all anti-terrorism courts of Punjab to expedite disposal of cases. Justice Bajwa, being Administrative Judge of anti-terrorism courts in Punjab, issued the direction at a meeting to review and evaluate the performance of judges, prosecution,
By our correspondents
October 04, 2015
LAHORE Justice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa of the Lahore High Court on Saturday directed judges of all anti-terrorism courts of Punjab to expedite disposal of cases. Justice Bajwa, being Administrative Judge of anti-terrorism courts in Punjab, issued the direction at a meeting to review and evaluate the performance of judges, prosecution, police and home department. All judges of ATCs, Member Inspection Team of LHC, Secretary Home Department, Prosecutor General Punjab, officiating CCPO, Lahore, and all Regional Police Officers of Punjab attended the meeting and discussed relevant issues related to the courts. Justice Bajwa expressed his satisfaction over working of the special courts and directed their judges to expedite the disposal of pending cases, as per the spirit of law and also required other stakeholders, including police to put in hectic efforts to complete investigations and to arrest proclaimed offenders at the earliest. Plea: A writ petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court for changing of the returning officer of NA-122 for being ‘ineligible’ and ‘incompetent’ to hold by-election in the constituency. Advocate Malik Munsif Awan, a candidate from the constituency, filed the petition stating that the returning officer Zahid Iqbal had failed to perform the statutory and constitutional duty as prescribed under the Constitution and Representation of Peoples Act, 1976. He says the Election Commission of Pakistan may scrutinise the nomination papers of by-elections by implementing Articles 62 & 63 of the Constitution in letter and spirit after uploading qualification and disqualification details of every candidate on its website. He states that the returning officers who fail to perform their duties and could not implement the constitutional provisions as well as statutory provisions of ROPA in letter and spirit, strict action may be taken against them by the ECP. The petitioner says the RO of NA-122 is ineligible, incompetent, lacking experience, unqualified to conduct the election honestly, fairly, justly and in accordance with law and prima facie he has failed to guard corrupt practices, so he is requested to be removed from the seat and new RO be appointed.
