LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Aalia Neelum on Wednesday gave 15-day time to the Punjab Police to enforce a centralised system to ensure swift submission of challans (charge sheets) in the criminal cases.

Earlier, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar submitted a detailed report on pending cases in the province.

According to the report, there were 362,000 pending cases, out of which challans for 239,000 cases have been submitted to the trial courts. It said the challans for the remaining 123,461 cases will soon be submitted.

The report revealed that a centralised system was being created to ensure that there will be no delays in submitting challans to the courts.

Chief Justice Neelum observed that, according to the police records, four cases were still pending without challans since 2013 in Gujranwala. The IGP reiteratedthat a better system was being introduced for all cases. The chief justice gave the IGP 15 days to implement the new system.

Hearing a bail petition by an accused in a drug-related case, CJ Neelum had taken notice of nonsubmission of challans in millions of cases registered in the province.

LARGER BENCH: Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday recommended formation of a larger bench to hear a petition of the PTI against an ECP decision of inquiry on its intra-party elections.

The judge sent the petition to the chief justice with a request to constitute a larger bench for further proceedings.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan filed the petition through Advocate Uzair Karamat Bhandari.

The petition questioned the ECP`s jurisdiction to hold an inquiry into the party polls. It also objected to the failure to return the items seized during a raid onthe PTI office by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The ECP had rejected the PTI`s pleas, ruling that the commission had the powers to regulate the intra-party polls. The ECP had instructed the PTI to approach the competent court of law for the return of files, computers, hard drives, etc. seized by the FIA.

The commission had also rejected a PTI plea for staying the proceedings of intra-party election matter till the announcement of a detailed judgment by the Supreme Court in the reserved seats case.

The ECP observed that the PTI had already delayed the matter and violated various provisions of the Elections Act 2017.

TRANSFERRED: The Lahore High Court has issued transfer and posting orders of 318 civil judgescum-judicial magistrates in Punjab.

All the judges have been instructed to assume charge at their new place of posting on or before Sept 18. Staff Reporter