KARACHI, May 27: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged the government to establish the office of Solicitor General and the Pakistan Institute of Arbitrators Referees and Umpires (PIARU) to work as a forum to resolve matters of disputing parties.

In a communication, the Unisame has drawn the attention of the highest authority of the country towards long drawn litigations and exhaustive procedures of the courts, and proposed that such offices will help resolve disputes in a shorter time frame.

The President of the Unisame, Zulfikar Thaver drew the attention of the President Pervaiz Musharraf towards this issue and said that the proposal is prompted by the need of trained personnel for arbitration who can give awards based on equity and justice. The Arbitration Act, he said empowers mediators to act as Arbitrators, referees and umpires.

Although most of the agreements bear the Arbitration clause and it makes it incumbent on the parties to the contract to refer the dispute to arbitrations first and before going into litigation but the unfortunate part is the non-availability of trained personnel in the SME circles and the rural areas.

Mr Thaver said that corporate circles hire the services of retired judges and senior lawyers at high fees but the common man is not in a position to hire experts. In rural areas, he said the ‘Panchayats’ played a big role but they were not independent and under the influence of the tribal lords. Second, their decisions were sometimes very weird and outside the norms of jurisprudence.

Zulfikar Thaver also invited the attention of the President Pervez Musharraf towards the promotion of alternative system of judicial remedies being pursued by international forums in under-developed countries.

He said the PIARU can play an effective role if the award was given extra cover in the constitution.