Supreme Court of Pakistan Achieves Decade-High Reduction in Pending Cases

The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan recently made public the details of cases that have been concluded and those still pending, from February 2, 2022, to February 1, 2023.

The report contained the data for the past year and included a decade-long trend of registered cases from 2013 to 2023. The data provides a detailed breakdown of cases handled by each bench head and judge, further showcasing the diligence of these legal professionals.

Detailed Breakdown and Performance Highlights

The Supreme Court was operational for 253 days within the year. Taking a lead role, Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, presided over the bench 243 times, finalizing an impressive total of 8,796 cases in his capacity as bench head.

Nominated CJP Justice Qazi Faez Isa held the gavel as the bench head on 183 occasions and participated in various benches five more times. In this period, Justice Isa presided over 1,323 cases, delivering verdicts as the bench head.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan also proved to be busy, leading the bench 236 times and partaking in 11 other benches throughout the year. His tenacity wrapped up 4,664 cases from February 2022 to February 2023.

Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, presiding over the bench 157 times and serving once as a part of another bench in a year, managed to finalize 3,126 cases as the bench head.

The overall data revealed that the Supreme Court wrapped up 22,843 cases within the year, while 20,707 new cases were registered within the same period.

The Supreme Court had 54,706 cases on February 2, 2022, but the number had decreased to 52,590 by February 1, 2023. The decrease of 2,116 pending cases marked a positive shift in the court’s performance, the first reduction in pending cases in the past decade.

The report emphasized that the number of pending cases in the Supreme Court had consistently been on the rise from 2013 up until December 2022, when a significant reduction of 1,722 cases was recorded for the first time.