KARACHI, Oct 1: Judges and judicial officers at a conference on Saturday outlined steps for judicial reforms in the province. They were speaking at the provincial judicial conference, organized by the Sindh High Court, in collaboration with the ministry of law, justice, and human rights under access to justice programme at a local hotel in Karachi.

The participants, including some judges of the Sindh High Court and officers of district judiciary, discussed matters with regard to effective case management, court automation and case flow management, expanded role of district and session judges in administration in view of changes in police order and CrPC and judicial reforms.

Former Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid said in most cases women and juvenile prisoners were not produced before courts and their cases remained pending.

He said that the surety amount in cases of women and juvenile prisoners should be less as a majority of women and juvenile prisoners belong to poor families.

He urged the judicial officers to take steps for strengthening the system. He said it is the responsibility of judges that justice be done.

Merely disposal of cases is not sufficient, judicial officers would have to realize that justice has to be done,” he observed.

Justice Mohammad Mujeebullah Siddiqui of the SHC asked session judges to make survey of pending cases in their respective jurisdiction and categorize them for speedy disposal.

Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery of SHC and District and Session Judge Zaheeruddin Leghari spoke on expended role of district sessions judges in administration in view of changes in the police order and CrPC, complaints against police and delay in disposal.

Justice Musheer Alam of SHC in his speech as supervising judge of AJP said that the programme is under way since previous three years and under it biggest ever investment was made for providing physical infra structure to the courts of Sindh.

He said that besides providing latest equipment and other infra structure, the salary package of judicial officer was made lucrative and higher than being paid in any other service or department with the payment of judicial allowances.

Referring to the purposes of the conference he said that it would help in generating ideas, debate and creation of consensus for future direction.

Mushir Alam said that Sindh’s share of AJP funds is around Rs 2.2 billion and the SHC has, so far, received 525 million, of which Rs.400 million has been spent. He said that the high court made efforts to increase budgets for district judiciary. Rupees 370 million allocated to lower courts in Sindh for salary were highest ever.

Robert Peterson, Project Director, AJP, said there was a strong leadership in Sindh judiciary and things were moving forward in right direction.

Justice Mohammad Mujeebullah Siddiqui in his paper “case flow management” said that ad hocism shall be broken by well equipping judicial officers, proper training, imparting skills and providing technology.

He suggested a number of tactical measures to improve the working of the judiciary for expeditious disposal of cases. He said that courts of exclusive jurisdiction shall be made to deal with specific nature of cases and this could help reduce the time required for disposal of a case.

Later, the conference concluded with the distribution of certificates to the DJs, ADJs, senior civil judges and other participants.

More than 72 members of judiciary participated in the conference including all the judges of High Court of Sindh.—APP