KARACHI, Nov 16 The judiciary is discharging its constitutional obligation of dispensing justice and the courts are functioning normally.

This was stated by Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar while distributing grants-in-aid among 16 bar associations of the province at the Judges' Rest House, Bath Island, on Saturday night.

He told the judges and lawyers present at the ceremony that the bar associations of Karachi would also receive financial assistance in due course.

The CJ said he was committed to expeditious disposal of cases and measures were being taken to clear the backlog as early as possible. Delay defeats the ends of justice and the litigant public would not be well-served if cases remained pending for years. He and his colleagues were prepared to do whatever it took to expedite the disposal of cases at all levels, the CJ said, and felt confident that the efforts would start yielding results in due course of time. In October, for instance, the Supreme Court disposed of 991 cases, he pointed out.

Justice Dogar also assured lawyers that a scheme would be worked out to streamline allotment of residential plots and sanction of housing loans for them. The government was willing to help implement the scheme so that the price of land and loans were recovered in easy installments.

The ceremony was attended, among others, by Sindh High Court Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Supreme Court judges Zia Pervez and Sabihuddin Ahmed, Federal Law Secretary Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, SHC judges Azizullah M. Memon, Amir Hani Muslim and Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi, Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, Advocate-General Mohammad Yusuf Leghari, Prosecutor-General Shahadat Awan and deputy attorneys-general Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui, Amir Raza Naqvi and Ashraf Khan Mughal.

The cheques were received by the presidents and secretaries of 16 bar associations.