KARACHI: CJ dissatisfied with quality of legal education
KARACHI, July 22: Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, the chief justice of Sindh High Court, said here on Saturday that the quality of legal education in the country is 'very low', and “hardly any thing by the way of research culture exists in the area of law.”
He was speaking as chief guest at the orientation workshop of the Access to Justice Development Fund (AJDF), held under the auspices of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP), at a local hotel on Saturday,
He also spoke of the need for providing pre-service and in-service training to judges before they assume their responsibilities.
The CJ also pointed towards the funding of projects under the AJDF and spoke on innovations in legal education, judicial training and legal and judicial research and said funds have been allocated to each of these sectors.
He said the institutions and individuals seriously interested in developing and improving curriculum for law degrees, its standards or undertaking research in any area of law, including justice delivery system, are always welcome to approach the LJCP for necessary assistance.
Justice Ahmed stated that the object of the exercise is to develop a full-time academia in the area of law throughout the country, make legal education a full-time vocation and seriously improve the standard of judicial performance at all levels.
He was of the view that with the passage of time, the need for resources required for the projects is likely to increase and once it is recognized that they are spent in the right direction, he would call upon the federal and provincial governments, the stakeholders and philanthropists to generously contribute towards the endowment funds so as to ensure its sustainability and improve performance of the Bar and justice delivery.
The Chief Justice said that out of the amounts received from the Asian Development bank (ADB) under the Access to Justice Programme, an endowment fund was set up through the assistance of the ADB, which has become fully operational recently.
He stated that the LJCP is holding a series of workshops regarding AJDF. The basic aim is to promote initiative for strengthening the subordinate courts, support initiative in legal/judicial research and legal empowerment of vulnerable groups. It is also focused at addressing the proverbial delay in the administration of justice.
Justice Ahmed informed that under AJDP, a Provincial Judicial Development Fund (PJDF) has been constituted as the largest window of AJDF (60.3 percent) whereunder a major portion of resources are reserved for all high courts on annual basis.
The PJDF resources are basically supplementary funds which compliment high courts own budgets for the institutional development and improvements in the performance of judicial functionaries at the district judiciary level.
He said that the High Court of Sindh had received share from the AJDF last year and funds for this year to the extent of Rs. 7.32 million were also received which were kept in a separate account for exclusive utilization in different windows prescribed for the mobilization which are managed by the development committee comprising three judges of the court, headed by Justice Musheer Alam.—APP
