ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: A Chief Justices Committee meeting on Thursday decided to constitute special benches for quick disposal of cases of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, women prisoners.

Presided over by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, the meeting held here at the Supreme Court Building also decided to increase the number of judges to fill the vacant posts and bring improvements in the existing jails besides nominate a judge of the high court to inspect jails in the concerned province and suggest reforms.

The meeting was attended by chief justices of the Federal Shariat Court, the Lahore High Court, Sindh High Court, Peshawar High Court, Balochistan High Court, Islamabad High Court and Programme Director, Access to Justice Programme.

Periodic inspections of the subordinate courts and monitoring of their performance by the judges concerned of the high courts and Member Inspection Teams (MITs) was also suggested.

The meeting stressed the need of ensuring uniformity in salaries of judges/judicial officers of lower courts of all provinces to remove a sense of deprivation particularly when the pay of the judges in the Punjab judiciary had been increased for three times.

A briefing was also given to the meeting on the status of Access to Justice Programme (AJP) during which it was proposed that AJP funds should be placed at the disposal of the respective chief justices of the provinces for reformation in the judiciary according to their requirement.

The meeting also discussed different issues and challenges confronting the system of administration of justice in the country, the biggest among them being the delay in the disposal of cases and the resultant ever-rising backlog.

The meeting emphasized the need to pay special attention to the disposal of cases of the condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, women prisoners.