PESHAWAR, April 30: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has said a permanent Supreme Court bench will start functioning at its Peshawar registry from May 2 for reducing the number of pending cases here. “Initially, there will be one bench and after some time, maybe after a week or a fortnight, another bench would also be sent here and if possible I myself would be heading one of the benches,” Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said on Saturday night at the annual dinner of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association during his first visit to Peshawar after taking over the office of chief justice last June.

He said that it was their objective that the benefit of quick justice should trickle down to every nook and corner of the country and not to a particular area.

He asked judges of subordinate judiciary to take interest in cases concerning women and children and should dispose of their cases as soon as possible as they were vulnerable segments of the society.

He said: “Females being weaker segments of the society don’t get proper assistance for the purpose of administration of justice,” the chief justice said, adding the bar associations should come forward for helping such prisoners through legal aid committees.

About the reduction of delay in disposal of cases in subordinate courts, the chief justice stated that they had taken a number of measures for alleviating the problem.

He said that he would be asking judges of the subordinate courts through the chief justices of the high courts to show more interest in the disposal of cases, particularly of prisoners who had been languishing in prison for many years.

He regretted that a number of prisoners had been kept in prisons despite the fact that they were charged in bailable offences.

Referring to a study stating that various prisoners charged under sections 107 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code had been in prisons, he said: “I issued directives to all high court chief justices to take steps for releasing these persons and directives were also issued to the home secretaries and inspector generals of prisons concerned.”

He said that as far as the NWFP was concerned they had cleared all such cases and all such prisoners had either been released or their cases had been decided.

The chief justice praised the performance of the NWFP judiciary stating: “In the NWFP writ grievances of the people are being addressed as first priority by the high court concerned. This objective should be adopted by all courts in other provinces.”

Justice Chaudhry stated that he was fully conscious of the fact that there was a lot of workload on the present strength of judges of the high court. He said: “We have made recommendations to the government for the purpose of increasing the strength of judges of the Peshawar High Court. I have also talked to the high court chief justice and the NWFP governor and told them to take up the matter with the prime minister and the president.”

He said that the functioning of subordinate courts in the NWFP was satisfactory, and added that as far as pendency was concerned, it had been reduced on account of the interest being taken by Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan.

He said that an international jurists’ conference would be held in Islamabad in August in which eminent jurists from across the world were expected to participate.

Earlier, High Court Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan had said that the pendency of cases in the Supreme Court had been reduced from 30,000 to 16,000 during the last one year since Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had become the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

He said that by taking suo motu notices the chief justice had addressed a number of social evils, including the inhuman practices of swara and vani, serving meals during marriages, killing of children and other people during basant, sale of spurious drugs and substandard construction of the Margalla Towers which resulted in a large number of people being killed.

“Some people are mentioned in history and there are some people who write history. At present the chief justice has been writing the judicial history of the country,” Justice Khan said while paying tribute to the chief justice.

The PHCBA president, Iqbal Khan Mohmand, in his welcome address, stated that a strong and independent judiciary was vital for stability in the country.

He said: “The chief justice has taken bold steps in various cases throughout Pakistan.”