RAWALPINDI, April 24: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said speedy justice is a major demand of the common man and urged the legal fraternity to ensure dispensation of timely justice at the grass-roots level.

Addressing a gathering of lawyers at the ground-breaking ceremony of the district court complex on Monday, he said provision of timely justice was a fundamental requirement of any society.

“Your noble profession pertains to endeavours of providing justice, therefore I urge you to discharge your duties in the best manner for the benefit of the poor, who look for justice,” he maintained.

President Musharraf recalled that improvement in law and order and dispensation of speedy justice formed the core of his seven-point agenda.

He reiterated the government’s commitment to improving facilities and infrastructure of courts to facilitate dispensation of justice.

In this respect, he said, the government would support plans for improvement in facilities in courts under the Access to Justice Programme, funded by Asian Development Bank.

“I’m fully supportive of the judiciary utilizing funds for improvement in the facilities. The judiciary should work out plans to this end and I will back these,” he said, noting that court buildings in the lower judiciary needed improvement.

The Access to Justice Programme, which has a funding of $300 million, aims at introducing administrative reforms and improving judicial infrastructure.

On the delivery side of justice, the president pointed out the problem of pending cases. However, he said, disposal of cases had recently sped up and hoped that the number of pending cases would soon be reduced.

Earlier, the Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, said the LHC had disposed of 77,000 cases and over 300,000 cases had been decided by lower courts in the province.

He said the facility of information technology had been introduced in courts to make them more efficient in terms of providing justice to people.—APP