December 6, 2001	Thursday	Ramazan 20, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 5: Pakistan Law Commission on Wednesday approved four draft laws and forwarded to the government for implementation.

The draft laws sent to the federal government included The Small Claims & Minor Offences Courts Ordinance, 2001; The Family Court (Amendment) Ordinance, 2001; The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2001, and The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2001.

Chief Justice Irshad Hasan Khan chaired the annual meeting of officers and staff of the commission.

The Small Claims & Minor Offences Courts Ordinance, 2001, provides for the establishment of courts at the Tehsil level for the resolution of petty disputes and minor offences. The court will attempt to bring about amicable settlement of disputes through conciliation and mediation. Such compromise will be enforced as a decree of the court. In the event of failure to compromise, the court, through specified summary procedure, shall decide the dispute within sixty days. The decree will be enforced through a simplified procedure.

It is expected that with the establishment of these courts, bulk of the cases and offences will be resolved quickly and at low cost at the community level. It will help in reducing the burden on other courts and delays in disposal of cases could be minimised.

The Family Courts (Amendment) Ordinance, 2001, stipulates the setting up of family courts at the community level with emphasis on conciliatory proceedings for settling disputes between spouses. In the event of failure to compromise, all suits i.e. divorce, dowry, maintenance and custody of children, will be consolidated into a single suit and decided in four months.

The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2001, empowers the sessions judge/additional sessions judge at the district level to entertain petitions concerning habeas corpus and provide expeditious relief to the aggrieved party. The draft law is designed to put an end to the abuse of power and arbitrary exercise of authority by the influentials and public functionaries by enabling the people, residing in the far-flung areas, to truly enjoy the benefits of the fundamental right to personal liberty and the right not to be arrested or detained without committing the breach of law.

The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2001, obligates the courts to thoroughly scrutinise the pleadings of the parties at the initial stage of hearing with a view to rejecting false, fictitious and frivolous claims and to also persuade the parties to the dispute to reach an amicable settlement thereof through conciliation, mediation and arbitration.

The Chief Justice, who is chairman of the PLC, expressed the hope that these draft laws will be expeditiously implemented so as to clear the cases’ backlog, reduce pendency in courts and expeditiously dispense justice to the litigant public.

He stated that the functions of administration of justice and reformation in laws are interconnected.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the Secretary, Pakistan Law Commission, Dr Faqir Hussain welcomed the Chairman and briefed him about the working of the PLC’s Secretariat and its performance during the year.

Chief Justice of Pakistan said that improvement in the system of justice could not be achieved without updating laws as per the need of the hour.

He noted that by reorganising the Commission into Law and Justice Commission, the government may enlarge the functions of the Commission towards matters concerning administration of justice, reformation of laws and preparation of uniform judicial policy.

He said that, unfortunately, the services of the Commission were not fully utilised in the past as only a few references are received from the government for laws’ reformation.