ISLAMABAD: With the country’s judiciary struggling to tackle a huge backlog of 2.18 million cases, the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee is meeting on Wednesday (today) to take stock of pendency, institution and disposal of cases in the superior and district courts during the period between Jan 1 and Nov 30 this year.

The NJPMC meeting to be presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed will also consider the backlog situation during the last 10 years.

Out of 2.18m cases, 377,380 are pending before the superior judiciary, including 45,673 in the Supreme Court, 200 in Federal Shariat Court (FSC), 188,241 in Lahore High Court, 81,180 in Sindh High Court, 41,200 in Peshawar High Court, 4,822 in Balochistan High Court and 16,064 in Islamabad High Court. The remaining 1.8m cases are pending before the district judiciary in different provinces.

Constituted under an ordinance of 2002, the NJPMC coordinates and harmonises the judicial policy within the court system and in coordination with the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) and ensures its implementation. The CJP is chairman of the committee, while the FSC chief justice and chief justices of the five high courts are its members.

Over 2m cases pending before superior, lower courts

The objectives of the NJPMC are to improve the capacity and performance of administration of justice, setting performance standards for judicial officers and persons associated with the performance of judicial and quasi judicial functions, bringing improvement in the terms and conditions of service of judicial officers and court staff, and to ensure skilled and efficient judiciary.

The NJPMC in Wednesday’s meeting will also take up the pendency situation, including institution and disposal of cases in administrative tribunals and special courts and vacancy position under the federal and provincial jurisdictions from January to November this year. The committee may take vacancy positions in the superior courts as well as the district judiciary during the same period as well as the vacancy position over the past five years.

It will also deliberate on the conditions of prisons and inmates.

At a previous hearing on the conditions of inmates in prisons, the Supreme Court was informed that there were currently 79,603 inmates in 116 prisons in the four provinces against a sanctioned capacity of 64,099.

Out of the total 79,603 inmates, 48,283 have been detained in 43 jails of Punjab against the sanctioned capacity of 36,806; 17,322 inmates in 24 jails of Sindh against the sanctioned capacity of 13,538; 11,891 in 38 prisons of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the sanctioned capacity 11,170; and 2,107 prisoners in 11 jails of Balochistan against the sanctioned capacity 2,585. The figures also include 1,273 juvenile, 23,027 convicted and 53,385 under-trial prisoners.

The meeting will also consider the establishment of National Judicial Automation Unit. Earlier, the CJP had approved a proposal to set up the unit in Islamabad to cater for IT-related requirements of the judiciary.

The meeting will also discuss preventive measures against coronavirus. During one such meeting, the NJPMC had decided that prisoners would be protected from being exposed to the risk of Covid-19 infections without denial of their right to have family meetings.

The NJPMC will also consider the status of gender-based violation and juvenile justice and child courts.

The LJCP had in a report held that due to gaps in legislation as well as non-enforcement or flawed enforcement of the laws, the children facing trial or detention have to face great hardships. “Financial constraints may prevent the government from resolving all the problems in one go, but it would be wrong to assume that even small and moderate steps in this respect cannot be taken,” the report held.

The LJCP had recommended that separate courts must decide juvenile cases, but since all such courts cannot be created at once, this problem can be overcome by designating some from among the existing courts to act as juvenile courts.

This may increase momentarily the burden on such courts, but a gradual increase in the number of judicial officers will ultimately resolve the problem. The LJCP had also suggested that planning must be made for the establishment of juvenile institutions.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2020