LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah has expressed concern over the large number of cases pending in Punjab courts.

“Some 200,000 cases are pending with districts courts across Punjab while the number of such cases in the LHC is around 130,00,” said Justice Shah in his keynote speech at the concluding session of the two-day international round-table conference on scope and future of judicial academies organised by the Punjab Judicial Academy (PJA) in collaboration with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Sunday.

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The justice system was meant to ensure provision of justice to the common man. “The importance of Metro bus, roads and other development works cannot be undermined but the common man wants quick dispensation of justice,” said Justice Shah while stressing the need to rectify the grey areas in the system.

Referring to the traditional procedure of case management, the LHC chief justice pointed out the hindrances in disposing of cases while urging judicial officers and judges to make themselves fully conversant with latest knowledge in order to monitor and expedite the hearing of cases.

He said that Punjab Judicial Academy (PJA) was imparting training to all the judicial officers and court staff of the province. The PJA was currently overhauling its approach towards the curricula, faculty development, research and publication, methods of adult training, use of information technology, monitoring and evaluation and administration of the judicial academy.

Directors general of federal and all provincial judicial academies, jurists and legal experts from different countries including Ireland, Turkey, Nepal, South Africa and Greece participated in the conference.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2017