KARACHI, Aug 29: Federal Minister for Law and Justice Muhammad Wasi Zafar has said that the government is committed to facilitating foreign investors by putting in place legislation and mediation procedures to resolve their disputes under the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism.

Addressing a workshop on “Alternative Dispute Resolution in Pakistan”, jointly organized by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Ministry of Law Justice and Human Rights here on Monday, the minister said that it was one of the top priorities of the government to improve the quality and efficiency of legal mechanism ensuring speedy justice.

“It is the foundation stone of a democratic country’s stability which cultivates an environment more conducive to internal and external investment, democratic process, social and economic consistency,” the minister added.

He said that the Article 33 of the UN Mediation Charter suggested that parties to a dispute likely to endanger peace shall “first of all” seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional arrangement or any other peaceful means of their own choice.

However, Mr Zafar said that the importance of the ADR both in national and international disputes could not be overlooked.

The minister appreciated the IFC endeavour for establishing and developing a system and the desired tools to capture the probabilities for implementation of an effective court mediation system on the broader scale in its previous projects. “I do know that access to the court data might interfere in reaching the desired results, however, it is very important to reconcile hostile parties to mediation,” he maintained.

Besides commercial cases mediation would be effective in civil, family, banking and in other thematic issues, he said and added that the procedural flaws resulting in delayed disposals of judicial business and a time consuming case flow management in almost all the courts of the country led to serious dissatisfaction of people seeking relief.

To address this issue, the minister said that his ministry had proposed amendments in certain laws, namely Civil Procedure Code, 1908; Code of Criminal Procedures, 1998; Specific Relief Act, 1877; Powers of Attorney Act, 1882; General Clauses Act, 1877; Registration Act, 1908; and Pakistan Penal Code. He further said that Law Reforms Bill, 2005 had been introduced in the National Assembly and was under consideration of its Standing Committee.

The minister said that implementation of law required a complete overhauling of substructure court procedures, case flow management, access to information and alternative dispute resolution. He further said that the use of mediation in resolving disputes was not a new phenomenon.

He said that the mediation, conciliation or even the arbitration, which were chosen as methods of ADR provided quick and inexpensive remedy to the disputing parties. It would definitely reduce the burden from the courts and would facilitate the general public, he added.