SC full court meeting discusses welfare of retired judges

The full Supreme Court at its meeting here on Tuesday considered matters relating to the welfare of the retired judges of the Supreme Court, and directed the office to facilitate the retired judges in every possible way.
A press release of the court said that the full court meeting was held on Tuesday (March 18) in the conference room of the Supreme Court building at Islamabad.
The meeting was presided over by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and attended by the judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan namely - Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice M. Javed Buttar, Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad, Justice Ijazul Hassan, Justice Mohammad Qaim Jan Khan, Justice Mohammad Moosa K. Leghari, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf, Justice Muhammad Akhtar Shabbir, Justice Zia Perwez, Justice Mian Hamid Farooq, Justice Syed Sakhi Hussain Bukhari, Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali and Justice Muhammad Farrukh Mahmood. The full court reviewed the pendency, institution and disposal of cases over the last four months. In the beginning of November 2007, the court had a pendency of 14,474 cases, while 3,505 more cases were filed during this period, out of which 2,690 cases were disposed of leaving a balance of 15,289 cases.
The full court examined the details of the different categories of pending cases. Currently, there are 5,255 civil petitions, 473 civil review petitions, 4,800 civil appeals, 1,083 criminal petitions, 1,869 criminal appeals, 604 jail petitions, etc.
Considering the nature of the different categories of cases, the full court approved various measures for quick disposal of cases, eg constitution of special benches for criminal cases and civil cases, at least one bench for hearing of cases involving death sentence and two benches for civil appeals.The office has been directed to prepare category-wise/year-wise lists of cases and place the same before the Chief Justice of Pakistan for constitution of appropriate benches.The full court noted that proper attention could not be paid to the disposal of cases during 2007, which led to the piling up of huge backlog. However, the court expressed its entire satisfaction over the pace of disposal during the last four and a half months. The office was also directed to give priority in fixation of cases filed against interim orders inasmuch due to the pendency of such matter, cases remain pending before the lower forums and do not attain finality.The Chief Justice of Pakistan appreciated the dedicated efforts of the judges for speedy disposal of the cases. The meeting also considered matters relating to the welfare of the retired judges of the Supreme Court, and directed the office to facilitate the retired judges in every possible way.
The court also examined the proposal of the office for upgradation of posts of Supreme Court employees and enhancement of judicial allowance. However, the court directed the office to place these matters along with necessary details in the next meeting.