PHC CJ directs judges to avoid attending functions in presence of political elite

PESHAWAR: Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court (PHC) Yahya Afridi on Sunday directed the judges of district judiciary to avoid attending functions where political elite were invited by the bar associations. He issued the directive to the district judiciary in the first-ever District and Sessions Judges Conference held at the PHC premises.

An official of the high court said that the aim of the conference, which was chaired by the PHC chief justice, was to improve structural reforms in the district judiciary.“The conference considered seven thematic areas and would firm up policy recommendations. These thematic areas include issues like capacity enhancement, improving coordination, using technology as a tool for improving service delivery and formation of secretariat for district judiciary,” the official said.

As per the official communiqué, the chief justice in his keynote speech highlighted major initiatives being implemented. He said that the secretariat for the district judiciary was currently in the design phase and would be rolled out in September 2017. He said it would facilitate the working of the district judiciary.

He said that overseas exposure and foreign training has been made permanent feature of the district judiciary. “Eleven judicial officers are going today (April 30) while six female judicial officers are likely to visit UK in September-October 2017,” he said. He added that far-flung districts and higher rate of disposal of cases would serve as the criteria for selecting officers for overseas training.

The chief justice said that UN agencies and multilateral donor institutions were willing to technically and financially support the structural reforms.“Projects like Litigant Shed and Solarisation and Installation of Water Filtration Plants were suggested to donors. A mega computerisation and digitalisation project is being rolled out to improve the usage of information technology as a tool for decision-making,” the chief justice said.

About the shortage of district judges, he said that the Public Service Commission had been requested to recruit 32 civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates so as to ease the workload in districts with high pendency. He informed the participants that in order to improve mobility, supply order for five SUVs for mountainous districts had been placed to facilitate internal visits and inspections by judicial officers. He said that supply order for 25 Suzuki swift vehicles for senior civil judges had also been placed. He added that against the total portfolios of 36 projects, six were due for completion but efforts were on to complete 9 to 10 projects so as to create space for new projects next year. The CJ  revealed that the provincial government had agreed to provide an additional allocation of Rs650 million for fast-track projects.

He said the high court was considering construction of five judicial complexes at different locations in the province and priority was being given to far-flung areas lacking infrastructure. However, the chief justice said that human resource evaluation in the districts was not done on merit by the district judges and it had forced him to give the task to the judges of the high court judges.

He urged the district judges to be more focused and fair in evaluating officers within their jurisdiction.The chief justice maintained that the district and sessions judges should be equitable and fair in determining workload amongst their sub-ordinates.

He urged them to ensure transparency and merit in appointment of supporting staff in the district. He directed them to ensure immediate transfer of cases where a judicial officer was transferred.

The chief justice assured the judges to consider empathically the issue of conferring judicial powers to officers who were currently having lesser powers.He also listened to the district and sessions judges and ordered immediate action to redress their grievances.