FAISALABAD-A divisional bench of High Court is imperative to provide speedy and cheap justice to 15 million people of Faisalabad Division at their doorsteps. The unanimous demand was made in a meeting of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) which was also attended by the representatives of different trade organisations, in addition to District Bar Association Secretary Rahail Zafar Kainth and members of the civil society.
Addressing the meeting, FCCI president Syed Zia Alumdar Hussain said that the demand for divisional bench is an unfinished agenda of the successive governments who had merely used the slogan repeatedly to hoodwink the people.
He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has also supported the demand but now the people are being offered to accept only a registry office of high court instead of a full-fledged divisional bench of Lahore High Court. He said that the registry office is neither the demand, nor it fulfils the requirement of people of the division who want justice at their doorsteps. He said that some mafias are opposing the genuine demand for their own vested interests.
He said that principal seat of the LHC is currently bearing the extra burden to provide justice to 50 million population of the division. "It is practically impossible for it to cater for the needs of the litigants belonging to this division", he pointed out and remarked that a huge chunk of cases are experiencing inordinate delay, which is tantamount to denial of justice.
In this connection he also quoted an idiom " justice delayed is justice denied" and said that Islamabad High Court has been established for only a population of 2 million whereas the population of Faisalabad city alone is around 4 million excluding its Tehsils and rural areas.
He said that unjustified administrative decisions are fomenting sense of deprivation and people has been forced to think that they are being denied their genuine rights as compared to other areas of the province. The FCCI president asserted that the demand for high court bench is the unanimous demand of the people of Faisalabad division and it should not be ignored by tagging it as a demand of lawyer's alone. He said that government should immediately accept it and direct the concerned quarters to establish the bench at the earliest.
DBA Secretary Rohail Zafar Kainth said that the lawyers' community is on strike for the last two months in line with the aspirations of the people of Faisalabad division.
He said that some elements have floated a mischievous stunt of the establishment of a registry just to hijack the actual demand for the divisional bench. He said that unity among lawyers, business community and people at large has foiled this conspiracy and now all segments are unanimously demanding that they would not accept any other alternative to the divisional bench.
He said that delay in the establishment of bench is eroding political prestige of government and people are forced to think that the present government is also towing the same policy of wait and see.
Senior Vice Chairman Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association Kashif Zia, Central Chairman All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association Engineer Rizwan Ashraf, Regional Chairman APTPMA Habib Ahmad Gujjar, Chairman All Pakistan Cotton Power Looms Association Khalid Mehmood Cheema, Chairman All Pakistan Sizing Industries Association Zahid Rasheed, President Foundry & Engineering Industry Owners Association, Chairman Khurarianwala Industrial Estate Association Khurram Iftikhar, Nadeem Ashfaq of All Pakistan Embroidery Association, Chairman All Pakistan Bed-sheet & Upholstery Manufacturers Association Mr. Arif Ehsan Malik, Shahid Mumtaz Bajwa of Faisalabad Floor Mills Association, Mirza Hidayat Ullah of Faisalabad Nuts & Bolts Manufacturers Association, Sheikh Ejaz Ahmad of Printing & Graphic Cards Association, Riazul Haq of Industrialists Association of Small Industrial Estate, Mirza Muhammad Afzal Mughal of Furniture Association, Muhammad Usman Hadi of Millat Industrial Estate Association, Jawwad Asghar of Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association, Muhammad Aslam Bhalli of Karyana Merchants Association, Waheed Khalid Ramay of Council of Loom Owners, Tanveer Riaz of Anjuman Tajiran Allied Group, Labor leader Aslam Wafa, Chairman Electronic Installment Association Rana Sikandar Azam and representatives of Supreme Anjuman Tajiran City, City Cloth Board, Faisalabad Foods Board, Sugar Linkers Association Punjab and Poultry Association also participated in the meeting.
The representatives of the trade bodies resolved that they would not accept any alternative to the high court bench and they are ready to go strike if government failed to respond positively to their peaceful struggle.