KARACHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry presided over on Friday a meeting to review the performance of judicial officers regarding clearance of backlog and disposal of old cases.
The meeting organised here by the Sindh High Court was attended by judicial officers of Karachi and Malir districts.
The district and sessions judges gave a presentation about disposal of oldest cases in their respective districts.
The data revealed that up to Nov 15, 2012, in Karachi South some 727 old criminal and civil cases were pending while in Karachi West a total of 1868 criminal and civil cases were pending. In Karachi East, 324 old criminal and civil cases were pending while in Karachi Central 120 criminal and civil cases were pending. In Malir district, 50 old criminal and civil cases were pending.
The district and sessions judges assured Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry that they would achieve the target for disposal of oldest cases within the prescribed period – Dec 31, 2012.
In his address, the chief justice said that the district judiciary primarily represented the overall image of the judicial system to the general public.
“It is here that the litigant parties initially come into contact with the justice system.”
The chief justice acknowledged the hard work put in by members of the district judiciary and said that in Sindh the issue of backlog still existed.
He also said that pendency in districts of Karachi was not so huge in view of the strength of judges and, as a matter of fact, the average pendency before each judge came to around 493 cases which was not a difficult task and was achievable.
Encouraging judicial officers, he said the institution of judiciary had come under the spotlight because of the hard work and dedicated efforts by all judges and independence and impartial dispensation of justice had reposed confidence of the public in judiciary and, consequently, more and more litigants were now approaching courts for resolution of their disputes and redressal of their grievances.—APP