ISLAMABAD, Aug 7: The Asian Development Bank's $350 million Access to Justice Programme is experiencing delays, officials say.

The programme, launched in 2001, is aimed at ensuring security and equal protection to the citizens, particularly the poor.

Officials said on Friday that the ministry of law and justice, which is the executing agency for AJP, has conceded delays in the five-year project. As a first step the ministry has submitted a revised PC-II for approval to Planning Commission to remove procedural delays in the technical assistance Loan and the Technical Assistance Grant for which the ADB had separately provided $29 million.

The ministry of law and justice admitted that due to "teething problems", including a lack of Programme Management Unit's capacity to use the technical assistance loan funds for initiating soft reforms for capacity building and empowerment and procedural delays in contracts, the project could only utilize Rs 46.675 million, out of the Rs 437.96 million available during the Phase-1 of the Access to Justice programme.

Sources said that a new understanding has been reached between the ADB and the government of Pakistan that the access to justice programme should refocus around five core policy themes. Each theme will have to be consistent with the Reports and Recommendations of the Board of Directors of the ADB. These five core public themes are: judicial performance, legal empowerment and education, public safety and prosecution, administrative justice and fiscal reforms.

The ministry of law and justice has assured the Planning Commission through its revised PC-11 that at the federal level, a National Programme Review and Coordination Committee will supervise and carry out periodic review of the project's implementation.

Similarly for each province, there will be a Provincial Programme Review Committee to carry out periodic reviews.

"During 2004-05, AJP will promote activities in the following sub-themes: training and capacity building for federal and provincial ombudsman's offices, strengthening internal complaints handling, investigation and enforcement, public education campaigns and training of new civil service recruits in public grievance redressal and related provisions of administrative law," the ministry of law said in the revised PC-II.