Pakistan’s Chief Justice Afridi calls for strengthening district judiciary — Dawn
Pakistan’s Chief Justice Yahya Afridi called for strengthening the district judiciary at a conference in Islamabad, describing it as the backbone of the country’s justice system. According to him, for most citizens, district-level courts are their first contact with a state institution, while public trust in the judiciary is earned through integrity, competence, impartiality, compassion and conditions that enable judges to properly perform their duties.
As Dawn reports, following visits to Chitral, Gwadar, Sadiqabad, Bahawalnagar and Nagarparkar, Afridi said he had identified a gap between the district judiciary and the National Judicial Policy Making Committee. The body was established in 2002 to coordinate and harmonize judicial policy within the court system in cooperation with the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan.
New funding procedure
According to Afridi, projects submitted by district courts had previously been able to wait three to four months for approval, while some were not completed because of rising costs. The committee decided to appoint additional secretaries in each province as a link between it, the high courts and the district judiciary. A 21-day deadline was set for approving projects and allocating funds from the Access to Justice Fund.
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The district judiciary identified four most urgent needs: uninterrupted electricity supply, internet access, necessary facilities for women and clean water. Afridi said that 3.4 billion Pakistani rupees had been allocated to these four projects in one year, while 900 million rupees had been allocated from the fund over the previous 20 years.
Working conditions in courts
The chief justice also stated that all tehsil-level courts in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad had been switched to solar power. In Balochistan, transporting solar equipment to remote areas is difficult, but the province’s chief justice assured that the work would be completed within 30 days.
The committee also amended the code of conduct for judicial officers and established a procedure for responding to external influence. Afridi stressed that judicial officers must remain independent and also announced a decision to provide compilers of the Rule of Law Index with empirical data on the work and resources of the district judiciary before future rankings are prepared.
