Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday reiterated that both bar and bench were integral part of judicial administration and they should freely interact for providing public quick and easy access to justice. He stated this while talking to a joint delegation of Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) headed by Senator Muhammad Kazim Khan, vice chairman Pakistan Bar Council and Asma Jahangir, President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) during a meeting here.
This was the first working session meeting of the representatives of PBC and SCBA to discuss the day-to-day affairs relating to the conduct of judicial administration in the Supreme Court on the directions of the Chief Justice. According to a statement issued by SC Registrar, this meeting was announced by the Chief Justice during a full court reference in honour of Justice Rehamt Hussain Jaferi on Monday.
At the very outset, the statement says, Justice Chaudhry stated that he has fixed this meeting to consider one point agenda ie further improvement of the procedure of the Court for disposal of cases expeditiously to ensure administration of justice to the litigant and at the same time to resolve the difficulties of the members of the Bar they face during the hearing of the cases.
Asma Jahangir acknowledged the role of the present Supreme Court in fostering the environment wherein the entire judicial machinery of the country has geared up to provide justice to people. Dr Faqeer Hussain, Registrar Supreme Court briefed the meeting about present working of the court, in particular, about preparation of regular/supplementary cause lists and fixation of matters for urgent hearing. After a prolonged meeting of over three hours, many important issues came under discussion.
Asma Jahangir took up the issue of proposed cause list, which is prepared three months in advance. She floated the idea that instead of three months-long list only one month cause list should be proposed so that the lawyers and the litigant parties may conveniently respond to the list.
The Chief Justice agreed to the proposal and directed the office of the Court that one month cause list should be initiated with effect from 1.1.2011 on experimental basis beside the three months list and the regular list be prepared on fifteen-day basis.
It was also agreed that information about the fixation, cancellation of cause list or adjournment of cases should be promptly intimated to the lawyers and the advocate-on-record (AORs) through newly introduced SMS alert system. Asma appreciated the new system and promised to provide the cell numbers and email addresses of lawyers to benefit from this initiative. Other procedural issues to remove hiccups and hindrances faced by the Supreme Court lawyers were discussed and resolved.
It was also agreed in the meeting that the system of AOR needs to be reviewed. The SCBA members expressed the hope that not only new AORs should be appointed but efforts should be made to get relevantly young lawyers as AOR who have sufficient knowledge of computers to keep up with requirements of increased litigation. Asma suggested that SCBA members should be co-opted for providing free legal aid services to deserving prisoners. The meeting agreed that there is a need to co-ordinate the efforts and resources of both the Supreme Court Bar and the Supreme Court of Pakistan to provide much needed free legal aid services to various prisoners in the country.
The members of the delegation requested the Chief Justice that necessary space may be provided to SCBA in the Supreme Court building for setting up a book shop where from the law books could be purchased by the lawyers. They also demanded that steps should be taken for establishing a kiosk in the court building where facilities of getting court fee stamps, stamp papers be made available together with providing secretarial services for drafting/typing to facilitate the lawyers and litigant parties.
Chief Justice agreed to the proposal in principle and assured the delegation that necessary decision will be taken in this regard in due course. The meeting also agreed to install LCD panel in the SCBA office to provide latest updates on the status of cases being heard in various benches of Supreme Court. Chief Justice expressed hope that such interaction between the members of bar and the bench should continue on more regular basis to resolve the day-to-day problems faced by the lawyers and the litigant parties.
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