30 Punjab judges made OSDs

LAHORE: Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Mansoor Ali Shah made 30 judicial officers, including three district and sessions judges (DSJ), six additional district sessions judges (ADSJ) and 21 civil judges OSDs.

They are LHC Inspection Team member Safdar Shahid, District Sessions Judge Establishment Bahadur Ali and Principal Staff Officer to Chief Justice Irfan Ahmad Saeed, Additional Sessions Judges Ch Jamil Ahmad, Zafar Abbas Sabzwari, Muhammad Ali Rana, Muhammad Bakhsh, Masood Hashmi, Sultan Sheikh and Ahsan Mahboob Bokhari. LHC Registrar Tariq Iftikhar has issued a notification in this regard.

The civil judges include Nusrat Ali Siddiqui, Malik Shaikh Allah Bakhsh, Hafiz Iqbal Kalyar, Hidayatullah Shah, Muzammal Sipra, Muhammad Tariq, Syed Ahmad Awan, Jawad Alim Qureshi, Nadeem Khizar Ranjha, Nadeem Abbas Saqi, Yousaf Hanjra, Nisar Ahmad, Mansoor Ata, Zulfiqar Ahmad, Ghulam Mustafa, Faiz Ahmad Ranjha, Nawazish Khan Chaudhry, Afzal Bhatti, Shahzad Aslam, Noor Muhammad and Abdul Karim.

Earlier, Mansoor Shah was sworn in as the 45th chief justice of Lahore High Court by Governor Rafiq Rajwana at a simple ceremony in the Governor’s House, also attended by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal and provincial ministers and judges of the LHC.

Later, the CJ called on the governor and the chief minister. The governor expressed the hope that the new CJ would play a key role in the dispensation of justice. The chief minister said dispensation of justice at the doorstep of every man is the top priority of his government. The CJ, Mansoor Shah, expressed his resolve to meet all demands for dispensation of justice.

Later, addressing the LHC staff at the Punjab Judicial Academy on Tuesday after taking oath, Chief Justice Mansoor Shah advised the LHC staff to work with commitment for betterment of the institution. It is an honour to work with an institution linked with dispensation of justice, he said and added that hardworking employees would be rewarded but the wrongdoers would not be tolerated and strict action would be taken against them.

He said he was aware of the problems faced by the judicial employees, adding all-out efforts would be made to resolve them. The chief justice said the Punjab chief minister had constituted a high-level committee on his request for provision of judicial allowance and resolving other matters of the judicial employees.

Justice Mansoor said good working relationship would be established with the government for dispensation of justice. He said the process of recruitment had been resumed and all the recruitment would be made in 15 days, adding the recruitment would be made through a transparent process. He said women and disabled persons would also be provided equal opportunities in recruitment.

He said a system was being devised to monitor the performance of the staff and high achievers would be rewarded accordingly. He said the whole system is being computerized and put online. He said that chief minister has formed a high power committee to provide judicial allowance and ameliorate their working conditions. He said cameras will be installed in all rooms of the courts in order to monitor the working of the staff. The LHC chief justice said his doors were open to all employees and they could contact him about their difficulties.

Chief Justice Mansoor Shah said the internal audit system would be established in the institution with the help of the country’s biggest audit firm, which had agreed to work free of cost for a year.