LAHORE, June 18: Development of a massive infrastructure for the judiciary, police and prisons is the main feature of the Asian Development Bank-sponsored Access to Justice Programme, which continues in the Punjab for the second year.
An allocation of Rs500 million has been made as part of the Punjab Annual Development Programme for 2004-05 out of the ADB-sponsored programme launched in 2001. It is supported by a $350 million grant-in-aid to be disbursed among all the provinces in four years.
The total ADP outlay for the next fiscal is Rs250 million and a similar allocation has been shown as part of the ongoing schemes. Budget papers show that the main thrust in achieving the ends of the programme is on the construction of more courtrooms in the civil and sessions court complexes in the district and their sub-districts, improvement in facilities for the litigants, and installation of modern equipment to expedite documentation of cases.
Besides, hundreds of residential facilities for the sessions and civil judges and other judicial officers as well as the staff associated with the subordinate, are also part of the programme. All such facilities were lacking in the past.
Around 292 such schemes were launched in 2003-04, of which 116 have been completed so far. Another 300 schemes to establish more courtrooms, improve litigation facilities and construct more houses for the judicial officers are being projected for the next fiscal.
Improvement in facilities for police and prisons is also part of the ADP-funded programme. Better working conditions at police stations are being created by way of renovation and construction of more barracks for constables.
Similarly, the capacity in prisons is being extended with the addition of new barracks for the inmates and improved toilet, washing and kitchen facilities in jails across the province.
New barracks, most of them for condemned prisoners, are being constructed at district jails in Gujranwala, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Jhelum, Attock, Shahpur (Faisalabad), Dera Ghazi Khan, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Mandi Bahauddin, Rahim Yar Khan and Multan. A new barrack for condemned prisoners is also being raised a Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.
As for the subordinate judiciary, some 188 residential schemes have been completed or are near completion across the Punjab. Of them 23 are in Attock, 18 in Faisalabad, 13 in Okara, 12 in Toba Tek Sing, 11 in Sahiwal and 10 in Mandi Bahauddin.
As for 300 new schemes for the next financial year, about half of them comprises residential facilities for judicial officers. Around 22 such schemes are projected each for Vehari and Sialkot, 15 for Sheikhupura, 13 for Gujranwala, 12 for Faisalabad and 11 for Sargodha.
