ISLAMABAD – Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa Wednesdaywhile appreciating Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer to allocate additionalresources for improvement of the judicial system, said efforts were beingmade to expedite disposal of cases.
The measures like provision of extra resources to the judiciary would go along way in improving matters, he said while speaking at the inaugurationceremony of IT-based facilities.
The CJP referring to the PM’s statements about the functioning of thejudicial system, said, “Everyone should know that the judges are workinghard but no one is perfect.”
He said there was a perception that courts were hearing the cases ofpowerful people while cases of weaker were not tried, and clarified withthe facts and figures that there were around 3100 judges and judicialmagistrates in the whole country who had decided 3.6 million cases.
All of them (litigants), he added, were not powerful but most of them werepoor and weaker, which showed that “all are equal in the eyes of law”.
He said the courts decided cases on merit without fear or favour and thejudges were burning midnight oil by working under existing resourcesinstead of demanding more or amendments in the laws.
The CJP said the Supreme Court had decided all the criminal appeals, excepta few, pending for 25 years. The establishment of model trial courts acrossthe country had given marvelous results and reduced the backlog of murder,narcotics, magistrate trials and civil appeals, including rent and familycases, he added.
He said the model courts had conducted trial of more than 73,000 cases in ashort span of time and dispensed relief to the litigants by achieving thetarget of zero pendency in most of the districts.
Moreover, the Supreme Court also took steps for police reforms and the postof Superintendent of Police Complaints was created in each district thathad also reduced 30% burden of the cases on district courts and 15% on highcourts, he added.
The chief justice said they had landed in the 21st century, the century oftechnology and advancement. The newly launched IT-based facilities, hesaid, would provide an effective and efficient platform to discourageadjournments and encourage legal fraternity to plead their cases withoutany delay, which would help improve disposal of cases and reduce thebacklog, and to get prompt justice from the courts by saving time and money.
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The CJP expressed thanks to the IT Committee of Supreme Court of Pakistanheaded by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shahand other stakeholders, including the Ministry of Law & Justice, NationalDatabase Registration Authority, Bureau of International Narcotics and LawEnforcement Affairs (INL-P) US Department of State, US Department ofJustice and COMSATS Islamabad and the team for their untiring efforts tomaterialize the vision of expeditious and inexpensive justice through theapplication of information technology.
Earlier addressing the ceremony, Justice Mushir Alam said the launching ofIT- based applications was litigant-friendly initiative towardstransformation of the Supreme Court of Pakistan through informationcommunication technology (ICT) so as to make the judicial system moreresponsive to the needs of people approaching the court for redressal oftheir grievances.
The ICT applications would benefit all the stakeholders of justice sector,including litigants, lawyers, general public, media and academia, he added.It would help them track the cases and keep them abreast of the latestupdates of the cases in the Supreme Court.
Justice Mushir Alam gave a brief introduction of the IT driven applications.
–The Android Mobile App can be downloaded from the Google Play Storestarting Wednesday and carries the following features:•Case search with complete history of the case.•Judgment search using multiple parameters•Personalized cause list search for registered users•Important news highlights•Roster search•User profile and registration•Personalized notifications
– Supreme Court Call Center (1818)Anyone can dial 1818 from their mobile phone or landline to avail thefollowing services:•Cause list queries•Judgment queries•Case search queries•Roster queries•Process related queries
– Complete Dedicated Video Linking of all Five CourtsAll the five courts (Court No.01 to 05) at the Principal Seat Islamabadhave been fully equipped as dedicated video link courts capable ofconducting proceedings in real time with any of the four branch registriesfrom Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta simultaneously.
