ABBOTTABAD, Dec 8: Despite the complete collapse of infrastructure after last year’s earthquake in the Hazara region, the rate of disposal of legal cases in its five districts remained high this year.

This was stated by Hayat Ali Shah, the district and sessions judge of Abbottabad, while addressing the concluding session of the regional judiciary conference held here on Thursday. The event was attended by senior judges, additional session judges and civil judges of the lower courts, besides the senior office-bearers of the Bar associations of Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan districts.

Notable among those present were session judges Khalid Amin Khan (Mansehra), Azhar Khan Nasim (Kohistan), Syed Qabool Shah (Shangla), Kausar Abbas Zaidi (Battagram), Muhammad Ibrahim Khan (Haripur), and Shamsheer Khan, registrar of the Abbottabad circuit bench of the Peshawar High Court.

Speakers on the occasion underlined the need for providing access to speedy justice, adding that the quality of judgments should be high at all times. The legal experts were of the view that quick disposal of cases and exemplary punishments were needed to discourage unnecessary and false litigations which wasted the courts’ time.

Speaking of the need for early disposal of cases, legal experts said that a bifurcation of the judiciary’s functions was necessary for quick disposal of criminal and civil matters.

Participants from Kohistan criticised the traditional system of dispensing justice and said that women were being mistreated under the jirga system. They could not even complain of the injustices meted out to them because they were generally discouraged from appearing in courts.

The speakers urged the Pakistan Bar Council to categorise lawyers according to their seniority and said that this was important for speedy dispensation of justice. The session judges criticised police interference in the prosecution of cases. Muneera Abbasi, additional sessions judge of Mansehra, was one of the seminar’s coordinators.