ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: The National Judicial Policy-Making Committee (NJPMC) on Saturday approved the courts automation plan involving installation of computers in the Supreme Court, high courts, law ministry, Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan and the Federal Judicial Academy.
The meeting was presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan Sheikh Riaz Ahmad and the NJPMC chairman here at the Supreme Court building. The meeting also decided to extend similar automation to all courts at the district level in the second phase of the project.
The plan envisaged preparation of an appropriate software to automate the courts, serve functions like preparing cause list, case-flow management, budget, accounts system and personnel system.
The chief justice also briefed members of the committee about the outcome of his meeting with the federal and provincial finance secretaries with a view to streamlining the process for timely execution of the ongoing Access to Justice Programme.
The chief justice stated that the high courts needed to submit development schemes/projects to the federal government through the respective provincial governments. He expressed the hope that through better coordination between the high courts, provincial planning and finance departments and the federal finance division, the development schemes would be quickly processed and implemented to improve the capacity and performance of courts.
The meeting was also attended by the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Yousaf, the chief justice of the Sindh High Court, Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad, the chief justice of Balochistan High Court, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, the chief justice of Lahore High Court, Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry and the secretary of Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, Dr Faqir Hussain.
The registrar of the Supreme Court, M.A. Farooqi, also attended the meeting on special invitation while the representatives of the law ministry and the Asian Development Bank also briefly attended the session to give presentation to the members of the committee on Automation Plan for the judicial institutions in the country.