Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui had decided to carry the tradition set by one of his predecessors, Chief Justice Ajmal Mian to keep on working for at least half of the three months' summer vacations and has nominated benches and dispersed those to various registries.
Some of the judges, however, have volunteered to work during the whole vacation period enabling the chief justice to designate benches for Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta for various periods.
The Supreme Court officials said, at present, the number of pending petitions and appeals was 23,081 that will now be heard by these benches.
The reason given for the increase in backlog this year was said to be reduced number of judges since December last year when three had retired due to cancellation of the law increasing the age of retirement. A fourth had retired during late winter, while another was assigned to the Federal Law Ministry as Principal Secretary.
Since then, the nation's highest judicial forum has been working with 12 instead of 17 judges.
Reviewing the current situation, the court officials said here on Wednesday that during the last six months, the Supreme Court had disposed of 4,726 petitions and appeals. At the advent of this year there were 20,031 pending cases. Another 7,776 fresh cases were filed up to June 12 with the result that at present 23,081 cases are pending.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has announced the following composition of the benches that will work during summer vacations at the designated places and periods:
BETWEEN JUNE 21 TO 25:
Karachi: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
Quetta: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Javed Iqbal.
Lahore: Bench No I: Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
Bench No II: Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice Falak Sher.
Islamabad: Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi.
FROM JUNE 28 TO JULY 2:
Islamabad: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
Karachi: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah.
Lahore: Bench No I: Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
Bench No II: Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday and Justice Falak Sher.
FROM JULY 5 TO 9:
Islamabad: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
Lahore: Bench I: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
Bench II: Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman Ramday.
Bench III: Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Falak Sher.
Karachi: Justice Rana Baghwandas and Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal.
FROM JULY 12 TO 16:
Islamabad: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
Lahore: Bench No I: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Falak Sher.
Bench No II: Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal and Justice Javed Iqbal.
Bench No III: Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman Ramday.
JULY 19 TO 23:
Islamabad: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
Lahore: Bench No I: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Khalil-ur-Rahman Ramday.
Bench No II: Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Falak Sher.
Peshawar: Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal and Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan.
Karachi: Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi.
FROM JULY 26 TO 30:
Islamabad: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
Lahore: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday.
Karachi: Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi.
FROM AUGUST 2 TO 6:
Islamabad: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi.
Karachi: Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah.
Lahore: Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
FROM AUGUST 9 TO 13:
Islamabad: Bench No I: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
Bench No II: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi.
Bench No III: Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal, Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.
Bench No IV: Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Falak Sher.
Bench No V: Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan.
FROM AUGUST 16 TO 20:
Islamabad: Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.
Quetta: Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Javed Iqbal.
FROM AUGUST 23 TO SEPTEMBER 3:
Lahore: Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi.