ABBOTTABAD: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Mussarat Hilali on Monday advocated an increase in the high court’s strength and elevation of its judges to the Supreme Court.

Addressing an Eid Milan reception hosted by the Abbottabad District Bar Association for her here, Justice Hilali, the first regular woman CJ of the Peshawar High Court, said the population of KP was almost the same as Sindh’s but KP had fewer judges in both high and apex courts.

“The number of judges in the PHC and Supreme Court should be increased,” she said, urging the Pakistan Bar Council to play its role for it.

The CJ said she won’t stand corruption in courts and if a lower court naib qasid was found to be involved in corruption, action would be taken against the relevant district and sessions judge.

Attends Abbottabad bar’s Eid Milan reception

She urged lawyers to suggest ways to improve the judicial system to restore people’s confidence in it.

Justice Hilali said the judiciary was the protector of the Constitution, the rule of law and the supremacy of democracy in the country and would continue performing that duty with zeal.

She also said family courts should encourage couples to sort out differences to save families from disintegration and should treat such cases as special ones.

The CJ said judicial officials should come to work in “uniform” and spend time in courtrooms instead of retiring rooms except for tea break, and shouldn’t put lawyers and litigants on wait for hearing into their cases.

She said as the CJ, she would ensure speedy action on the matters being heard by family courts and cases of under-trial prisoners, and an appropriate increase in the strength of the lower judiciary in the province, especially in light of the merger of the tribal region.

Justice Hilali also said she would ensure better working conditions for courts as well as jail reforms.

She said districts had judges in sufficient numbers but there was a shortage of additional sessions judges and family court judges.

The CJ voiced displeasure at an increase in the number of under-trial prisoners and asked the inspector-general to sort out the matter on a priority basis.

Justice Abdul Shakoor of the PHC, who was also in attendance, said the Abbottabad bar, which was his parent bar, had produced great lawyers and judges in its 104 years long history who would always be remembered for their judgements and human character.

He said he learned a lot from his seniors in the bar and young lawyers should follow in their footsteps.

In the welcome address, president of the District Bar Association Sardar Basharat said the Sindh High Court had 35 judges but the PHC’s strength was almost half of it though both provinces had almost the same size of population.

“There is a need for increasing the strength of the Peshawar High Court and KP’s representation of the Supreme Court,” he said.

Earlier, the CJ inaugurated the biometric attendance system at the district bar room.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2023