PESHAWAR: Judicial reforms to ensure quick justice, says Aziz
PESHAWAR, March 16: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Wednesday that the government was considering certain amendments to the judicial system to improve it with major focus on providing quick justice, reducing pendency and ensuring transparency in dispensation of cases. Speaking at a function of the Peshawar Bar Association after performing the ground breaking ceremony of a judicial complex in Peshawar, the prime minister said it was an admitted fact that only those countries progressed where justice was provided quickly to the people. He said the proposed amendments would certainly curtail the delay factor in disposal of cases.He also referred to the famous idiom “Justice delayed is justice denied” to substantiate his viewpoint and said that delay in provision of justice in fact marred the development process of the country.
The prime minister said that after assessing the whole situation, he came to know that property cases in fact played the key role in delay factor and there were reasons for it of which the outdate and obsolete record keeping system in the country topped the list.
He called for automation and computerization of the entire land records and it should be presented to the public in transparent manner.
“As much as we can reduce inflow of cases it would curtail pendency and delay factor.” He said foreign donors had expressed their willingness to assist Pakistan in reforming the judicial system.
Mr Aziz told lawyers that “our intentions are clear, we want to move forward the judicial system in a fair and transparent manner.” He held out a categorical assurance that he supported the contentions of the legal fraternity to increase the strength of the judges in high courts. However, he said, at present no seat of judge was vacant in the Peshawar High Court.
The prime minister said that property cases constituted the major chunk of the cases pending before different courts of the country and added that the disposal of property case took years to complete. While in some instances, the case was decided after the retirement of the litigant. He said big buildings in the country were not being utilized due to civil cases pending in different courts for more than 10 years.
He said that the Asian Development Bank had agreed to provide $300 million for introducing reforms in the judicial system and Access to Justice Programme (AJP) had been initiated under the same concept. Under the AJP, the lawyers and judges would be given training besides establishing judicial complex to provide quick and inexpensive justice to the people. The Peshawar Judicial Complex would be funded from the same programme. He thanked the ADB for giving practical shape to Pakistan’s programe.
The prime minister sought the cooperation of the lawyers in early disposal of the cases and urged them not to take bulk of cases as it was also a major factor in delaying justice to the people.
Referring to Police Order 2002, the prime minister held out an assurance to implement it in letter and spirit. He said the government had given adequate facilities to the police to effectively meet changing nature of crimes and combat terrorism. The government, he said, had taken various measures to improve mobility of police, and its communication network and held out an assurance to give more fund to them.
The prime minister while praising the performance of the frontier police, said that the law and order situation in the NWFP was better. He said in order to improve the performance of the police new tools and techniques were being employed.
NWFP Governor Commander Khalil in his address said that the construction of Judicial Complex the first of its kind in the country was a joint venture of the Federal and NWFP governments. The NWFP provided land while the federal government would bear the entire cost of the project. He said, at present courts in Peshawar were located at scattered places and the construction of the judicial complex would help lawyers in their task.
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani in his address said that the share of the NWFP in the Access to Justice Programme was Rs.2.50 billion whereas it received Rs200 million in 2004 under the same programme. He said a similar judicial complex would be established at district levels in the province.
He drew the attention of the prime minister to bulk of pendency in NWFP courts and therefore appointment of more judges in the Peshawar High Court. He said the appointment of additional judges could be done in the Malakand and Bannu benches of the Peshawar High Court.—APP
