The district judges gave presentation regarding disposal of oldest cases in their respective districts. The data revealed that up to 15.112012 in Karachi South total 727 oldest Criminal and Civil cases were pending, while in Karachi West total 1,868 oldest Criminal and Civil cases were pending. In Karachi East, total 324 oldest Criminal and Civil cases were pending, while in Karachi Central total 120 oldest Criminal arid Civil cases were pending. In Malir District total 50 oldest Criminal and Civil cases were pending.
According to the decisions of National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (NJPMC) taken on November 3, these oldest cases are to be decided till December 31. The District & Sessions Judges assured that they will achieve the target for disposal of oldest cases within prescribed period. The CJP/Chairman NJPMC, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in his concluding address stated 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.
Talking about the National Judicial Policy, the CJP stated that it had been three-and-half years since the National Judicial Policy was launched. The policy primarily aimed at achieving three key objects: one, to eliminate backlog and reduce pendency; two, expedite the trial proceedings thereby providing expeditious relief to the litigant parties which is a constitutional mandate; and three, to institutionalise and enhance the independence of judiciary thereby making the judiciary an impartial institution for rendering justice and deciding disputes freely and expeditiously.
The CJP acknowledged the hard work put in by the members of District Judiciary and said that in Sindh the issue of backlog still existed. He further stated that pendency in districts of Karachi was not so huge as compared to 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 object and was achievable.
He said it was an ideal situation for each judge to achieve the Policy target, but of course it required planning, strategy and determination. He further stated that it was due to the able guidance of Chief Justice, High Court of Sindh and inspection judges of district judiciary that made it workable to achieve the Policy targets.-PR