PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice SM Attique Shah has directed all the district and sessions judges to show zero tolerance for corrupt practices in their establishment and take action against elements bringing bad name to the institution by their malpractices.
He was addressing the district and sessions judges conference held here, which was chaired by the members of administrative committee of high court including the chief justice, senior puisne judge Justice Ijaz Anwar, Justice Syed Arshad Ali, Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar.
PHC Chief Justice SM Attique Shah spoke of the importance of a responsive and assertive judiciary. He said that it was the collective responsibility of judiciary to deliver inexpensive and expeditious justice in a transparent manner.
He told the participants that being leaders at district level, they should strive to make their respective districts as a model of effective justice delivery, while ensuring fairness, fearlessness and independence.
PHC chief justice says it is responsibility of judiciary to provide inexpensive and expeditious justice to people
He laid emphasis upon curbing of delay in disposal of cases, especially those involving under trial prisoners, rent, inheritance and matrimonial disputes.
He accentuated the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as a strategy to deliver swift and amicable justice. While commending judicial performance of district judiciary in achieving high rate of disposal viz-a-viz institution, Justice Shah said that there was no room for complacency and judiciary must continue with the said rate, rather should thrive to achieve even more.
The senior puisne judge, Justice Ijaz Anwar, in his welcome speech, spoke of the importance of timely decision of cases. He highlighted the essence of adopting a robust approach by courts towards dispensation of justice, despite the challenges that they faced from other stakeholders.
Justice Syed Arshad Ali pressed upon capacity uplift through regular academic sessions at districts. He said that courts should adopt meaningful trial scheduling regime in order to ensure effective case management which should result into diminishing unnecessary delay in trial of cases.
Justice Sahibzada Asadullah spoke of the importance of a proactive judiciary while observing that the courts ought to make endeavours to ensure that all facts were brought to light, even if purposely left over by the parties.
Similarly, Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar stressed that trial courts and appellate courts should make proper and thorough appraisal of evidence so that facts and evidence on record could be thoroughly examined.
In his welcome address, the PHC registrar gave an overview of the last five-year performance of district judiciary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and thereafter gave salient features of the strategic plan 2025-30.
He said that during the last five years, a sizable number of backlog cases comprising 73 per cent were cleared.
During the first session the member inspection team, principal staff officer (PSO) to chief justice, director planning and development, resident additional secretary of Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, made presentations on statistics of human resource, cases institution and disposal, information communication technology and developmental projects besides access to justice developmental fund respectively.
A threadbare discussion was made regarding the impediments in timely disposal of cases. Suggestions were floated to overcome the challenges.
PHC chief justice in his concluding address appreciated the role of district judiciary in the dispensation of justice and reiterated that Peshawar High Court would extend all its institutional support to the district judiciary to achieve the common objective of inexpensive and expeditious justice to the litigant public at their doorstep.
Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2025