Lahore:The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday expressed dissatisfaction with a report submitted by Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab, Dr. Usman Anwar, regarding the non-submission of challans in courts and summoned him in a personal capacity for September 4.
LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum was hearing a petition filed by one Imran Ali, an accused in a drug-related case.
At the start of the proceedings, in compliance with previous court orders, a report on behalf of IGP Punjab was presented in the court regarding the non-submission of challans in 362,000 cases.
Prosecutor General Punjab Syed Farhad Ali Shah submitted that the record of cases was previously maintained manually but are now being computerized. He further submitted that challans for 135,000 cases had been sent to the courts. In response to a court query, he stated that 135,000 of these cases were from Lahore.
At this, the chief justice asked the prosecutor general about the measures being taken to submit challans in districts other than L
ahore.
The prosecutor general submitted that this matter is handled by the District Coordination Committee.
In response, Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, addressing the Prosecutor General, directed him to treat this matter as an emergency and questioned what types of cases were those in which challans had not been submitted.
At this stage, Assistant Advocate General Waqas Umar provided details about the nature of the cases.
However, the chief justice remarked that the report did not mention the nature of the cases, adding that this was an important issue, yet no police officer had appeared in court.
Subsequently, the chief justice summoned the IGP Punjab along with the record for September 4 and adjourned further hearing of the case.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Chief Justice had sought a report from the IGP Punjab regarding the non-submission of challans after it was revealed during the last hearing that challans for many cases had not been filed in the trial courts.