LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Aliya Neelum has summoned a full court meeting of all judges for Saturday, 5 September, with an agenda spanning case backlog, court administration and a proposed amendment to the judges’ code of conduct.
The meeting will be held at 10:30am in the New Judges Library at the principal seat.
According to the agenda, the meeting will conduct a detailed review of the disposal of pending cases across the Lahore High Court’s principal seat and its Bahawalpur, Multan and Rawalpindi benches, as well as in the district judiciary.
Progress on timely disposal and on reducing pending cases is expected to be examined.
Case backlog is the structural problem of Pakistan’s superior judiciary, and the Lahore High Court carries one of the heaviest loads in the country. The inclusion of the district judiciary in the review is notable: the great majority of litigation in Punjab is disposed of at district level, and high court pendency is shaped substantially by what does or does not move beneath it.
Several items concern how the court runs itself. The approval of various judicial rules and the ratification of standard operating procedures are on the agenda. So is the reorganisation of the Lahore High Court and ratification of a revised organogram.
Also listed: ratification of a transfer policy for accountants, auditors and other relevant employees of the district judiciary, and approval of a request for mobile attendance under the court’s Employee Self Service system.
The numbering of court rooms and the ratification of judges’ posts according to the nature of their work will be considered. The meeting will also take up the hearing of constitutional petitions, particularly tax-related petitions, through division benches — a question of how the court allocates a category of high-value litigation.
Matters relating to judges’ summer and winter vacations are on the agenda, and further items may be added during the meeting as required.
Two entries stand out.
Sources said the requirement of a mandatory no-objection certificate for judicial officers travelling abroad will come before the meeting. NOC requirements for foreign travel by judicial officers touch on the balance between administrative oversight and the independence of individual officers, and any change to the rule affects every judicial officer in the province.
The second is a proposed amendment to the code of conduct for judges. Documents relating to that item will be presented in a sealed envelope — an unusual procedural marking that indicates the content is not intended for circulation ahead of deliberation.
According to instructions issued by the Registrar of the Lahore High Court, all judges have been directed to assemble in the Judges Common Room at 10:15am on 5 September, in gowns, for a full court photograph.
Court dress has been prescribed as the dress code for the meeting, which will be held in the New Judges Library. A luncheon has been arranged for the judges afterwards.
A full court is the assembly of all judges of a high court and functions as its highest internal decision-making forum. It is where administrative policy, rules of procedure and structural questions are settled — matters that do not arise in any individual case but govern how every case is handled.
Such meetings are convened infrequently, and the breadth of Saturday’s agenda — pendency, organogram, transfer policy, vacations, bench composition for tax petitions and the code of conduct in a single sitting — suggests a consolidated review rather than a routine session.
Outcomes of full court meetings are not always announced publicly. Rule changes and SOPs, where ratified, typically surface later through registrar’s office notifications.
Agenda details in this report are drawn from the circulated agenda and from sources familiar with the arrangements. The Lahore High Court registrar’s office has been approached for confirmation.
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