ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: Pakistan’s lower judiciary, which has until now been working on the Victorian-age typewriters, will be provided 1,100 brand new modern computers to improve disposal of cases.

The lower judiciary, comprising district and sessions courts, civil court and magistracy, will be provided within weeks 1,165 brand new computers, 800 printers, servers, scanners and peripheral equipment, under the “Access to Justice Programme”, funded by the Asian Development Bank.

The computers are being provided under the automation plan being undertaken under the Strengthening of Institutional Capacity for Judicial and Legal Reforms project.

It is for the first time that the district judiciary would get modern equipment which could help it improve its performance. The lower courts in Pakistan are badly equipped where rickety old typewriters are in use while magistrates and civil judges record the evidence in their own handwriting.

The lower judiciary, which contributes huge sums to the national exchequer in the form of court fees, had never been on the priority of any government and thousands of cases in each court remain pending for decades.

Under the Access to Justice Programme for which the ADB has committed soft loan of US $330 million, of which US $100 million have already been released, a major overhaul of the court’ information management system has been proposed in order to improve the courts’ capacity to administer and manage the caseloads effectively.

Under this plan US $4.3 million are being spent on the provision of 1,165 computers, 800 printers, servers, scanners and peripheral equipment, including tables, along with custom-designed software. Funding to support this investment in new technology will be available under the Access to Justice Programme.

Those who are executing the judicial reforms plan, believe that the modern technology would help in case-flow management, monitoring of monthly performance of the lower courts, inspection of lower courts, complaints monitoring system, library management system, research and reference system, archiving of old documents, budget and accounts system, personnel system, fixed assets, procurement and other functions of general branch, public inquiry system, and web sites.

Under the same programme judicial statistics would be collected to assess workload and performance of the court. These statistics, it is expected, would provide the judicial leadership with the information required for all kinds of reforms in judicial administration, ranging from automation to legislation.

In the Federal Judicial Academy, where the newly recruited judges are trained, a new computer lab has been established where the judicial officers and judicial staff would be trained to effectively utilize the modern technology for quick disposal of cases.

The government is attempting to streamline the working of lower judiciary where thousands of people daily visit and return home disappointed. The litigants, as a matter of routine, are informed in the afternoon that the case for which they had been waiting to be taken up, has been adjourned.

A sizable amount of the funds are being spent on improving the system under which the litigants would be informed of the status of their cases (process serving).

A large number of litigants in Pakistan suffer due to inefficient and corrupt process serving system.

A comprehensive study of the process serving establishment functioning in different provinces of the country has recently been carried out.

The study recommends that the litigants should be required to pay a single lump sum fee for the service of process and not every time the case is enlisted.

To counter the allegation of corruption and inefficiency, the study recommends that the process servers and bailiffs should be promoted to the next pay scale.