LAHORE: A new anti-terrorism court has been established in Lahore, taking the total number of anti-terrorism courts in the city to four.
According to sources, the new court has been set up in response to a rise in the number of terrorism-related cases in Lahore.
District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Akram has been appointed as the judge of Anti-Terrorism Court No. 4. The judge will assume charge of his office on September 1.
Muhammad Akram has been transferred to Lahore from the Sialkot Banking Court. The Lahore High Court made the appointment of the new anti-terrorism judge on the request of the government.
The purpose of establishing the new court is to reduce the burden of pending cases in view of the increase in terrorism cases and to ensure effective and timely hearing of matters.
Following the establishment of the new court, four courts will now function in Lahore for the hearing of anti-terrorism cases.
Anti-terrorism courts are special courts constituted under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, and operate outside the ordinary criminal trial structure. They are presided over by serving district and sessions judges appointed in consultation with the relevant high court, and they exercise jurisdiction over offences listed in the schedule to the Act.
That schedule extends considerably beyond what the public typically understands as terrorism. It encompasses sectarian violence, attacks on law enforcement personnel and government installations, kidnapping for ransom, certain categories of firearms and explosives offences, and acts calculated to create a sense of fear and insecurity in society. The breadth of the schedule is one of the principal reasons anti-terrorism courts across the country carry heavy dockets.
The Act also prescribes a compressed procedural framework. Trials are intended to be concluded within a statutorily specified period, day-to-day hearings are contemplated, and bail is restricted in scheduled offences where reasonable grounds exist to believe the accused is guilty. Appeals lie to the high court, which is required to decide them within a fixed timeframe.
In practice, the tight statutory timelines have proved difficult to observe where the number of courts has not kept pace with case registration. Pendency accumulates, adjournments multiply, and the acceleration the legislature intended is diluted — which is the specific problem the fourth court in Lahore is meant to address.
The appointment mechanism used here is standard. Anti-terrorism court judges are drawn from the district judiciary and are notified by the provincial government following consultation with the Lahore High Court, which retains administrative supervision over the district courts in Punjab.
Judge Muhammad Akram’s transfer from the Sialkot Banking Court reflects the routine rotation of district and sessions judges between specialised forums — banking courts, consumer courts, accountability and anti-terrorism benches — over the course of a judicial career.
The addition brings Lahore’s anti-terrorism bench strength to four courts, which will now share the existing docket alongside newly registered cases forwarded by the Counter Terrorism Department and other investigating agencies.
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