KARACHI, Sept 13: Speakers at a seminar on Saturday stressed the need for improving the human rights situation in the country.

They were speaking at the seminar on “Human Rights and our legal system”, organized jointly by the National Institute of Labour Administration Training and the Human Rights Welfare Foundation, held at the NILAT auditorium.

Sindh Population Welfare Minister Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh said violation of human rights, in general, and those of women, in particular, were very common and the government was making efforts to formulate laws to improve the situation.

He urged the NGOs and civil society organizations to work approach and assist the government in formulating laws to improve the situation, and to work for the rights of women and children.

He said today courts are flooded with cases and over 80,000 cases are pending in the superior courts while over 125,000 cases are pending in the lower courts.

He said this was the situation when hardly a few posts of the judiciary were vacant.

He said jirgas would automatically be phased out if and when the judicial system becomes effective and there is a quick dispensation of justice.

He criticized the opposition parties and said they were creating a situation in which assemblies were unable to perform their basic function of proper law-making, and due to this the people had been suffering.

Director-general of the Sindh Judicial Academy Justice Dr Ghous Mohammad said the judiciary in the given conditions had done a lot of work to uphold the human rights and in many cases of rights violations, suo moto action had been taken.

Citing an example, he said that the court had taken up the case of bonded labour on a telegram.

Speaking about the shortcomings in the system, he said in the absence of an effective witness protection programme, many people were reluctant to come forward and give evidence against the influential, and the courts due to lack of evidence have to acquit the culprits.

He said the courts cannot decide on hearsay or on the basis of stories. Solid evidence is required to convict a person.

He said though the constitution guarantees inexpensive and quick justice, unfortunately the legal process sometimes takes years to complete even in simple matters.

He said our religion has given a complete charter of human rights, and if the government only implemented it honestly, every citizen would get his and her rights.

Other speakers on the occasion said that family courts were flooded with matters pertaining to divorce, khula, maintenance, and the courts usually takes years to settles these issues and the people involved continue to suffer.

They also demanded that properly equipped laboratories be set up so that accurate medico legal reports could be submitted in the courts by the prosecution.

They also suggested that the government should develop some mechanism under which some action could be taken against the lower court judges, whose decisions were revoked by the higher courts without any new facts coming to the case.

They suggested that some laws be formulated against the illegally constructed buildings and these be taken over by the government to save the interests of the allottees, and action be taken against the builders involved in illegal activities, and they be fined and sent to prison, so that it works as a deterrent and no builder involves in illegal activity and dare to cheat the masses.

They also urged the people to try to give rights to their family members and if everyone got his her rights, a large number of human rights dispute would not even emerge.

Syed Hakim Ali Shah Bokhari of NILAT, Sohail Jabbar, Zahid Khan, Dur Mohammad Pathan, Abbas Ali Abbasi, Azeem Barelvi, Shamim Riazi, and others also spoke.