KARACHI, Feb 22: The chief justices of Saarc countries vowed on Sunday to strengthen rule of law and recognition of merit and eradicate chronic legal delays in their jurisdictions.

The CJs adopted a declaration at their seventh conference held here on Saturday on the sidelines of the 10th Saarclaw Conference and released it on Sunday at the closing ceremony of the two conferences.

The signatories to 'the Karachi Declaration' are: Chief Justice Syed J.R. Mudassir Husain of Bangladesh, Chief Justice Lyonpo Sonam Tobgye of Bhutan, Justice R.C. Lahoti (on behalf of CJ V.N. Khare) of India, Chief Justice Mohammed Rasheed Ibrahim of the Maldives, Chief Justice Govind Bahadur Shrestha of Nepal, Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui of Pakistan and Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva of Sri Lanka.

The declaration said: "We, the Chief Justices of the Saarc countries, having gathered here in Karachi, this 21st day of February 2004 and believing in the objectives of the Saarc and the Saarclaw;

"Sharing the common aspirations of our people in the region to live in peace, freedom, justice - social and economic; "Conscious that in order to realize the said objectives it is necessary to develop people-to-people cooperation;

"Realizing that we have common problems in the administration of justice in our respective jurisdictions and that those problems can be addressed by collective efforts;

"Considering that the judiciary in every country is the ultimate guardian of the rights and liberties of the people and that good governance is the fountainhead of the emerging new social, economic, political and legal order;

"Committed to making efforts aimed at eliminating discrimination, victimization and exploitation; "Recognizing that the attainment of ultimate goal of a just society is possible only with the establishment of rule of law;

"Observing that rapid progress in information technology has caused radical shifts in the philosophical perspectives of law; "Accepting that it is equally the judiciary's responsibility to address itself and rise to the challenges of change;

"Do hereby resolve, declare and undertake through the Karachi Declaration:-

"(a) to strengthen the rule of law and recognition of merit in our countries by providing effective judicial support to the efforts aimed at curbing malpractices, malfeasance, corruption, favouritism and discrimination in any form;

"(b) to make concerted and collective efforts to exterminate, root and branch, the chronic malady of delay in the disposal of cases by introducing innovative changes, including changes in procedures, aimed at improving management and operations of the courts of the Saarc countries and re-defining the work patterns of our judiciaries for optimal utilization of the resources so as to keep pace with the increase of litigation;

"(c) to evolve mechanisms that ensure positive cooperation and support of the Bar in regulating hearings and accelerating the process of administration of justice through collaborated and coordinated efforts;

"(d) to ensure selection of competent and independent judges;

"(e) to ensure assessment and analysis of workloads of various courts and take appropriate remedial measures, including increase in the number of courts along with requisite infrastructure;

"(f) to establish judicial academies, or strengthen the institutional capacity of academies already in existence, to improve the professional competence of the judges for improving dispensation of justice;

"(g) to emphasize the need for amendments in the judicial service rules to make induction level training necessary for such duration as may be suitable to the jurisdictions concerned and to link promotions with successful completion of in-service training; and

"(h) to bring about collaboration of the judiciaries of the region with the judicial academies to plan and develop seminars for training in management, planning and research to foster interaction, cooperation and exchange of knowledge and information amongst various judicial institutions."