ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $386 million Access to Justice Programme loan and Reproductive Health Care Project loan for Pakistan.

With these two new loans, the total ADB lending to Pakistan approved this year now amounted to $950 million for four projects, says an announcement of the local ADB office.

According to ADB Resident Representative M. Ali Shah, against originally planned level of assistance of $625 million for 2001, actual amount of assistance approved by ADB was an additional amount of $325 million, considering the post-Sept 11 events which weakened Pakistan’s external and fiscal positions.

The Access to Justice Programme Loan approved by ADB comprises three loans totalling $350 million equivalent to support a programme to reform Pakistan’s judicial and police system.

Two policy loans amounting to $330 million will bolster the Government’s Access to Justice Programme, which will strengthen legal protection for all, and is specifically designed to empower the poor and other vulnerable groups.

In addition, ADB will provide a $20 million technical assistance loan to translate the Programme’s legal and policy framework into institutional and organizational arrangements.

The ADB Resident representative, Mr M. Ali Shah, stated that the $350 million assistance was the largest of its kind ever provided by the ADB to its developing member countries, and it reflected the priority and significance of reforming the administration of justice for the Government of Pakistan.

The government will establish the Access to Justice Development Fund (AJDF) that shall, among other things, support the subordinate courts, the Law Commission, and the Federal Judicial Academy. The AJDF will also support a variety of civil society legal empowerment initiatives from legal literacy to advocacy and public interest litigation.

The AJDF will also support innovations in legal education by existing law schools, and the government will work with the private sector and existing public sector law schools to establish centres of excellence in legal education.

The Reproductive Health Care Project loan is aimed at helping the government expand and strengthen essential family planning and maternal and child health services and integrate them into a modern reproductive health (RH) approach to improve the acceptability efficiency, and impact of services and make them available to those most in need.