LAHORE, Nov 1: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Nazim Husain Siddiqui said at the Punjab Bar Council dinner recently that litigation in the country was on the increase mainly because socio-economic justice and rule of law were more or less absent.
He cited the example of the institution of cases in the Supreme Court which outnumbered the disposal rate during the year 2003 to substantiate what he said about the huge number of cases, both criminal and civil, pending with the apex court.
The Supreme Court disposed a record number of 9,547 cases -- 7,878 petitions and 1,669 appeals -- during 2002. But the pendency of the cases still was again as high as 17,370 on the first day of 2003 because another 13,847 cases had been instituted afresh during the year. They included 11,472 petitions, the largest number.
These figures are part of the annual report of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan for 2003, released last month. The commission, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, was established in 1979. Its role was redefined in 2002 to restrict it to the review of statutes and other laws with a view to improving and modernizing them to keep pace with changes taking place in society and elsewhere in the world.
Simultaneously, the government set up the National Judicial (Policy-Making) Committee the same year to take up some of the duties that the commission had earlier been performing. The committee now provides a statutory platform to all superior courts of the federation and provinces to jointly formulate and implement policies for judicial governance and improved service delivery in judicial and legal sectors. Improving the capacity and performance of the administration of justice, setting performance standards and improving the service terms of judicial officers are some of the assignments of the committee.
One part of the committee's job is to publish annual reports of the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court, provincial high courts and subordinate courts, administrative courts and tribunals working under them. It was the first time that the National Judicial (Policy-Making) Committee (NJPMC) got these annual reports published for 2003.
According to the report, about four million cases were pending in all the high courts and courts subordinate to them on January 1, 2003. The Punjab had the largest share of 939,562 cases pending in lower courts and 65,685 at the Lahore High Court; its principal seat at Lahore and benches at Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur.
In Sindh, the number of pending cases was 209,968, including that of 121,557 in its subordinate courts. This number in the Peshawar High Court was 169,953 and this included 159,074 cases pending in the province's lower courts. As for Balochistan, the cases pending at the high court were 3,079 and those at subordinate judiciary numbered 8,408.
The number of cases pending is by all judicial standards alarming and this was the situation Chief Justice Nazim Husain Siddiqui addressed with the apprehension that if the procedural changes were not made to expedite disposal of cases, a stage might come when even urgent cases would be fixed after a week or 10 days. The NJPMC noted that pending cases rose despite cases were decided in a large number.
The report says that the number of pending cases reduced in the Punjab as both the Lahore High Court and the subordinate judiciary at all tiers reduced the number substantially.
Similar is the situation in Sindh where the superior and subordinate courts made a record disposal of cases. However, the institution of new cases also went up with the same proportion in these provinces.
As for the Balochistan High Court, the number of pending cases increased over the period. But the province's subordinate judiciary reduced the number of pending cases substantially.
The situation was the other way round in the NWFP where the Peshawar High Court reduced the number of pending cases in a big way but the disposal of disputes by the subordinate courts was less than fresh cases. The NJPMC, in its various meetings during the year 2003, adopted a two-pronged strategy for the solution to the problem.
In the first instance, it recommended a raise in the salary structure of judicial officers in lowers courts, introduction of an automation plan for the sessions courts and setting up judicial complexes at districts.
As for the service conditions of judicial officers, the committee recommended an additional judicial allowance of Rs5,000 for district and additional sessions judges and senior civil judges and Rs4,000 for civil judges and judicial magistrates to become part of their monthly salary.
The committee took the decision after holding that the salary structure of the judicial officers was highly unsatisfactory and there must be a substantial increase. Also recommended by the committee was that the judicial officers and court staff be given a utility allowance of 10 per cent in addition to improving their transport facilities by creating a transport pool in each district besides providing them residential facilities.
As for the automation plan, the committee decided that the record of district courts and district bars would be computerized and a database developed. The Ministry of Information Technology also supplemented its work by committing itself to extend hardware and software facility in courts and bars in all districts.
The committee also decided that judicial complexes would be established in all districts where sessions, civil and special courts as well as tribunals would be set up.
