HYDERABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali has attributed 75-80 per cent of backlog of cases in the apex court to the failure of institutions and incompetence of officials.

Speaking at the Hyderabad District Bar Association’s annual dinner at the local civil court late Saturday evening, Justice Jamali observed there was an environment of bad governance in the country. “It’s incompetence of the officials concerned and failure of the relevant institutions that the Supreme Court was faced with a stockpile of cases,” he said, arguing that if all state institutions discharged their responsibilities efficiently, litigants would not have to pay numerous visits to the courts.

“There may be some shortcomings on the part of judges, lawyers and litigants, but the judicial system itself is complete and perfect,” he observed.

Justice Jamali said the system was meant for providing cheaper and speedy justice to people and both judges and lawyers shared this responsibility along with relevant institutions.

The CJP appreciated the judiciary and other institutions for their efficient performance, and said they should be encouraged and assisted to help in the improvement of the system. “The country’s judicial system should become a role model for all to follow.”

Justice Jamali noted that apart from handling its regular work, the Supreme Court was dealing with nearly 500-550 applications every day that were submitted by aggrieved people at the human rights cell functioning on the SC premises.

“Another separate cell is working for the disposal of the applications,” he added.

“The system consists of the bench and the bar and, as such, they should share the burden and cooperate with one another to ensure smooth running of the system,” he said.

Speaking about the performance of the Supreme Court, he said more than 1,350 cases had been disposed of within a month’s time. Around 25,000 cases were currently being heard and many of these cases were not older than five years.

He held out the assurance that the backlog of cases would be cleared as early as possible.

Earlier, the CJP also inaugurated a scheme for the renovation of the A.G. Akhund Hall at the district and sessions court.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Faisal Arab said that 78 judges -- 36 from Karachi, 16 from Hyderabad and 52 from other districts -- were appointed in the last batch. No one from Badin, Tahtta and Tando Allahyar could qualify for the post of judge which was sad, he added.

He said that young lawyers would be selected from those who would qualify the National Testing Service (NTS) exams starting next month and possibly 70 to 80 lawyers might be inducted in the judiciary.

SC judges Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Ameer Hani Muslim, SHC judge Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, senior lawyers and the Hyderabad DIG and deputy commissioner were among those who attended the programmes.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2015