MULTAN, Dec 8: Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari on Friday relaunched the e-justice programme aimed at enabling the country’s bar associations to have an easy online access to statutes and case laws.

The minister launched the first part of the fresh project by inaugurating the automation of the Multan Bar Association which also marked a simultaneous provision of online legal information to 30 other bars in Punjab for a period of two years, starting from Friday.

In the first phase of the project, 31 bars (mostly district bars from Punjab) have been provided online access to statutory and case laws while the remaining bars in the province will be automated with in a few weeks.

Addressing the opening of online facility to the Multan Bar Association, Awais Leghari said that the project was an extension of an earlier programme whereby the Ministry of Information Technology provided 82 bars in the country with online access to statutory and case laws for a period of three years which ended in April this year.

He said among the beneficiaries of the previous programme were 31 bars from Punjab, 16 from Sindh, 20 one from NWFP and three from Balochistan besides nine tax bar associations and three registry offices of the Lahore High Court.

He said that the ministry of information technology had come up with the latest programme in response to a positive feedback received from the bar associations and the bench regarding the extent of benefits and advantages it entailed for the judges and lawyers in processing and disposing of cases in time.

He observed that the earlier programme had not only facilitated the judges and lawyers in remote areas to have ready access to all sorts of legal information but it also led to a great amount of jobs creation and efficiency in delivery of justice and related public services.