UNIFORM JUDICIAL POLICY FOR ALL THE COURTS OF PAKISTAN JUDICIARY i.e., THE HIGH COURTS, THE DISTRICT JUDICIARY AND THE COURTS/ TRIBUNALS INCLUDING THE FEDERAL/ PROVINCIAL COURTS/TRIBUNALS WITH A CENTRALLY CONTROLLED AND SUPERVISED A MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEM

UNIFORM JUDICIAL POLICY FOR ALL THE COURTS <!--[if gte mso 10]> UNIFORM JUDICIAL POLICY FOR ALL THE COURTS OF PAKISTAN JUDICIARY i.e., THE HIGH COURTS, THE DISTRICT JUDICIARY AND THE COURTS/ TRIBUNALS INCLUDING THE FEDERAL/ PROVINCIAL COURTS/TRIBUNALS WITH A CENTRALLY CONTROLLED AND SUPERVISED A MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEM By Mr. Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan Judge, Supreme Court of Pakistan Strengthening the independence of judiciary and public expectations In the wake of successful, internationally recognized and un-precedented struggle for independence of judiciary with a leading role of Hon'ble Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the level of expectations of the public, from the judiciary in general and from .he Hon'ble Chief Justice particularly has reached to the maximum. Expectations need consideration 2. At the Supreme Court level, administratively, having a direct control and supervision by the Hon'ble Chief Justice with judicial managerial powers of fixation and distribution of case work among the benches constituted by the Hon'ble Chief Justice the task of fulfilling the expectations of the people poses no problem. However, the matter at all other judicial forums i.e., the High Courts, the district judiciary and other Federal and Provincial administrative, judicial and quasi-judicial Courts/tribunals need a serious consideration to plan ways and means to have had work from them towards the administration of justice effectively and efficiently. The place of district judiciary in the judicial hierarchy 3. Amongst the aforesaid Courts the district judiciary, the backbone of the judicial system of Pakistan, plays an important role in building the image of the judiciary favourable or adverse in the public eyes. About 70/80 % of the litigants come in contact with it and more so in the first and initial stage with a result oriented impression either good or bad based on the treatment they are metted out by the district judiciary either by the Judges themselves or Court personnel. Whether the judiciary will meet the situation of expectorations of the public 4. At the moment Supreme Court headed by Hon'ble Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, having a keen interest in imparting justice and redressing the grievance of the people and particularly of underprivileged and vulnerable people who in turn are having no complaint of not to be heard and are still placing their grievances at the waiting list for its turn to reach at the stage of the grant of relief. Bui the situation at the district level is an alarming one and also not satisfactory at other levels. This may be because of their need of further capacity building both (i) in the form of judicial education and training, (ii) proper direction, (iii) better Court case management where in some area they need the help and assistance of the competent authority as there they may not have the power or authority to do the things in the way they want e.g., (i) they have no say in the distribution of case work equally to the possible extent amongst the Courts of equal jurisdiction, (ii) the provisions of certain books and journals dealing with the Court procedure e.g., (i) the High Court Rules and Orders, and (ii) their orientation and education where they are lacking or the non-appearance of the counsel in their Courts which need an intervention on the part of the High Courts or Supreme Court with the leaders of the Bar and some other remedial measures to be taken in that behalf. 5. They also mostly in the need of the residential and conveyance facilities and the factor of the pendency of large number of cases on the docket of a Judge also creates hindrance in the early disposal of the cases. These are a few problems of the ones in abundance which are to be dug out and to be redressed but with the proper investigation, scrutiny, inquiry and conducting home work through a permanent forum on regular basis. If the measures were not taken in time for the redressel of the grievances of the public at the local level that would result in pouring of more complaints in the Supreme Court, which are nowadays done as the number of filing of the complaints, in addition to the regular work of the Supreme Court, has been enhanced and hundreds of complaints are being received daily in the Supreme Court. Not to speak of dealing them at the Court level effectively even their management by the office seems to be running out of control with the resultant consequence of good image of the Supreme Court and the judiciary in the eyes of the public who are still waiting for their turn to conic and would be redressed, God forbade, may not be blurred. The question arises that how and in what manner this difficulty may be overcome. Four bodies/institutions playing important role in the administration 6. The Chief Justice of Pakistan is heading four statutory bodies with its membership of all the Chief Justices of the Provincial High Courts, in addition to other members to be appointed as provided under the relevant statutes i.e., of justice (i) Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP), (ii) National judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC), (iii) Federal Judicial Academy (FJA), and (iv) The Governing body of Access to Justice Development Fund (AJDF). 7. If we look in depth there is a great scope in the provisions of these statutes rather these provide affirmatively for the capacity building and welfare of the judiciary in general and of the district judiciary in particular. The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan 8. The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan Ordinance, 1979, provided for the functions of the Commission and under section 6(1)(ii), to cater for enactment and amending of the laws for the purpose of adopting simple and effective procedure for administration of laws to ensure substantial, inexpensive and speedy justice, and under section 6(1)(vii), introduction of reforms in the administration of justice. The National Judicial Policy Making Committee 9. The other body i.e., NJPMC, which plays a pivotal role in the administration of justice. This law provides that the committee which is constituted under it committee Chief Justice of Pakistan as its head along comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan as its head along with Chief Justices of the High Courts of the Provinces as its members. In the preamble it has been provided to coordinate and harmonize judicial policy within the Court system and to improve the capacity and performance of administration of justice, to (i) setting performance standard for judicial officers and persons associated with performance of judicial and quasi-judicial functions, (ii) improving in the terms and conditions of service of judicial officers and Court staff to ensure skilled and efficient judiciary and publication of periodical reports of all the Courts. The Federal Judicial Academy 10. The FJA is to provide training and education to the judicial officers, law officers and Court personnel in addition to holding seminars, workshops, conferences and also publishing the research work to be conducted by it. Though the Provincial judicial academies have also been established in some of the Provinces i.e., Punjab and Sindh, and the other two Provinces are in, the process to establish the same but the FJA will have to play a role of a mother academy to continue its functions with regard to the judicial/legal training and judicial/legal education of the persons associated with judicial functions by harmonizing and coordinating the same with the provincial judicial academies for setting the courses for the purpose of judicial training and education to be taken by the FJA and the one by the Provincial judicial academies. The Access to Justice Development Fund 11. The Governing body of AJDF comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan as Chairman and Chief Justices of the High Courts is to manage an endowment fund of 25 million Dollars and its income for the need of the judiciary. 12. The promising feature of all these bodies is that these are headed by Hon'ble Chief Justice of Pakistan and all the Chief Justices of the High Courts are its members. The role of NJPMC 13. Though the main function of the NJPMC is improving the capacity and performance of administration of justice, setting performance standards for the judicial officers and persons associated with the judicial and quasi-judicial functions and also to provide f ;r the better salary and improving in the terms and conditions of the services of the judicial officers and Court staff in order to ensure skilled and efficient judiciary which indicate that this body can do a lot in this direction i.e., to redress the grievances of the people in time effectively and efficiently with proper management and strategies. The Secretariat of LJCP and NJPMC 14. Since it is a high powered committee it is very difficult for it to assemble regularly with a short span of time and to spare the time to do this work minutely in view of the heavy casuals of the Hon'ble Chief Justice of Pakistan and Chief Justices of the High Courts and more probably visualizing this situation, the Ordinance for the assistance of the Committee and for implementation of its decisions provided for the establishment of a Secretariat to be provided by the Secretariat of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan and Secretary of the Commission shall act as Secretary of the Committee. How the Secretariat of NJPMC would work: 15. The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan is having an established Secretariat tentatively with a strength with Secretary of the status of a Joint Federal proposals Secretary, as its head, 3 Joint Secretaries, 4 Deputy Secretaries (BPS-18), 5 Research Officers (BPS-17), MIS Manager, System Analyst, 2 Computer Programmers and Computer Operator with 48 personnel of ministerial staff. In addition to the above, 13 posts have also been sanctioned in view of the expansion of its work on account of establishment of the NJPMC. Till date not to operationalize effectively the Secretariat in this direction is also a question to be answered. This Secretariat meant for NJPMC needs to be operationalized for more effective and efficient working after completing its sanctioned strength by filling all the vacancies either through direct appointment or by transfer or deputation. The better course would be on deputation of the judicial officers from the Provinces, because of improvement in the administration of justice, a matter to be dealt with the Courts which can effectively be done by the judicial officers in a better way. This Secretariat will chalk out the strategy and as well work as a think tank and would also work as a monitoring body of the district judiciary with collaboration of the M.I.T. office of each High Court and with other tribunals directly. Unless this Secretariat is established to act as a think tank and also as a monitoring body the work of the committee cannot be effectively carried out and if any decision is being taken, as in the past e.g. despite a decision for having a uniform categorization of cases in all the Provinces this work has not been accomplished till now, the same cannot be effectively implemented. In the area of capacity building e.g., the Court procedure has also been provided in the High Court Rules and Orders, in addition to Cr.P.C. and C.P.C. which have provided for the provisions where these two Codes have not provided for the Court procedure but till today neither the judicial officers are in the know of such Rules and Orders nor any efforts have been made to provide them with the aforesaid Rules and Orders is one of the essential requirements, in addition to so many. This work can better be performed by this Secretariat. 16. By improving the administration of justice at the district level, would naturally lessen the burden of the Supreme Court with regard to the cases in which Suo Motu action is taken e.g., in the criminal offences when a case is not registered then by availing the provisions of section 22 of the Cr.P.C. an aggrieved person can approach the Sessions Judge for issuing directions to the Police authorities for registration of the case, if the Court system at that level works effectively and similarly with regard to the illegal detention the same Court can be approached by filing a Habeas Corpus petition but again with the condition if an improvement is brought in administration of justice. Prelude to the conclusion 17. The conclusion would be that the four bodies mentioned above are high powered bodies with the Board of Governors or Governing Bodies comprising of the Hon'ble Chief Justice of Pakistan as head with the Chief Justices of the Provincial High Courts are members i.e., (i) the LJCP with the powers to recommend enactment/amendment in the laws including the one relating to the improvement of administration of justice as has been done previously in the case of enactment of the Minor Offences and Small Claims, empowering the Sessions Judge to hear Habeas Corpus petitions, and thus in case of need of any amendment in the laws the same can be recommended with a home work to be performed by the Secretariat of the Commission having the capacity to do so both in terms of human resource and also equipment and financial assistance, (ii) the NJPMC with powers to take decisions with regard to the improvement of administration of justice in the Court system and also relating, in addition to the judicial officers, to the Court personnel and any person associated with the judicial system. This body also having a Secretariat for implementation of the decision and assistance of the Committee, (iii) the FJA and other Provincial academies, providing the best forum for the judicial training and judicial education with the capacity to arrange video conferences and also on-line courses, (iv) the AJDF having sufficient funds with the main object of improvement in the administration of justice. Final conclusion: 18. Hence, (i) having the powers to take decisions, (ii) having the resource of funding, (iii) having the forum for training and education of the judicial officers, (iv) having the authority to recommend enactment/amendment in the laws and rules and ultimately having judicial Suo Motu powers to issue instructions to bring about reforms in the judicial system, with precedents in the past, and also (v) having the Secretariat for implementation of the decisions but with the need of its operationalizing with evolving a monitoring and evaluation system and empowering it to act as think tank with new and innovated methods of improvement in the administration of justice will prove an effective, reformative, centrally supervised and controlled system, a step forward for improvement in the administration of justice.