LAHORE The unavailability of the auxiliary staff at more than 40 lower courts across the Lahore district has exposed the performance of recruiting authority vis--vis easing of both the judges and the litigants, TheNation has learnt. According to lower court employees, the litigants facing or attending cases in the lower courts, especially the civil courts in the district, have been facing a lot of problems owing to this slackness of the authorities. Revealing current pathetic and deplorable situation of these civil courts, the court sources said that about 50 civil judges were currently working without their court clerks (ahlmad). The civil judges sitting in courts set up at the LDA Complex are running short of proper helping staff, they further said. They disclosed further that the judges facing shortage of helping staff have so far made several written requests to their senior for the helping staff but they served with excuses and promises in this regard. The court sources also said that the shortage of helping staff is becoming severe day by day with the increasing ration of litigations in the courts but the authority concerned has allegedly so far given his/her deaf ear to this serious matter. They further disclosed that more than 35 judges are working without the availability of the stenographers as the readers appointed with the judges have been made forced also to perform the duties of the stenographers to run the working of the courts till the receipt of the proper staff. Officials of courts also claimed on the condition of anonymity that the former District and Sessions Judge Sheikh Zawar Ahamd also called some 25 officials of lower courts and inquired them verbally would they be able to perform the duties of readers if given promotions on which most them replied in 'yes. But after verbal inquiry of the Judge no promotion of the lower staff has been made and no satisfactory recruitments also made to meet the shortage of the helping staff at different courts working in Lahore district. On a question the court officials working at District and Sessions Court Lahore and its other courts refused to elaborate the names of judges working without the availability of the proper and must helping staff like stenographers, adding even courts are running short of more than 150 process servers and all the work in this regard has been put on the readers of the courts which is totally unfair. When contacted the District and Sessions Judge Lahore office superintendent Raja Muhammad Ilyas to know about the shortage of story, he told this scribe that no doubt currently there is need of 28 stenographers but so far most of the candidates desirous of the post could not pass the test in this regard. He further said that soon the court would recruit the helping staff to meet the shortage of staff at different courts working in Lahore district. On the other hand newly elected Lahore Bar Association president Shahzad Hassan Sheikh said that a delegation of lower courts employees also met with him a couple of days ago and told him about the problem of 50 percent raise in their salaries. He said that their demand has been forwarded to the authority concerned and they ((employees) also verbally told him about the shortage of helping staff at different courts due to which they are working under extra-burdens. Shahzad further said that soon he would hold a meeting with the authority concerned and forward a demand and request to the office concerned for the recruitment of proper and must helping staff so that judges as well as litigants could be given relief from problems being faced by them.