Turning FJA into centre of excellence: need for coordinated efforts underscored

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that co-ordinated and collective efforts were required to fully turn the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) into a centre of excellence, imparting knowledge which was central and essential to development.
He was addressing 33rd meeting of the Board of Governors of Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) held on Saturday under his chairmanship. The meeting discussed a number of issues pertaining to administration, budget and finance, capacity building of the Judicial Officers, extension and enhancement of the Federal Judicial Academy as 'Centre of Excellence' were discussed in detail by the members of BoG.
At the outset of the meeting, Chief Justice of Pakistan said that since all the items on the agenda of the meeting were important for the achievement of long avowed goals; therefore, they must put forth their collective and co-ordinated efforts.
He said that some visible progress had been made to convert the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) into a 'Centre of Excellence' which in the long run might turn into a degree awarding institute in the country. The Chief Justice said that projects cannot be undertaken without requisite funding; however, timely releasing of required funding was also essential.
"Since we have the Federal Minister for Law who is also Vice Chairman of the FJA BoG and also the Federal Secretary Finance in this meeting, we hope that they will use their offices for this noble purpose because quality judicial education is everybody's concern," he maintained.
An item on the agenda, regarding role of the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) vis-à-vis Provincial Judicial Academies it was opined that the Academy should be developed and capacitated to such an extent that it may be made necessary for the judicial officers ranging from Civil Judges to the District and Sessions Judges to attain training courses for their promotion in the next grade.
"We must lay down a procedure, policy for the promotion of the Judicial Officers and there must be a training and subject to qualifying that training they may be given the promotion," Chief Justice Observed.
A committee comprising all four provincial Chief Justices were also constituted to examine various aspects of this matter under deliberation, according to a press release. Regarding Service Rules for the FJA staff, the Chief Justice emphasised that pragmatic efforts should be made to finalise the Service Rules of the Academy.
"In order to secure the career and ensure their career growth in this Academy, it was essential that these rules should be framed at the earliest, adding that these Rules should not be mixed with faculty rules," he maintained. Finally, the meeting approved all the items on the Agenda and few items on the agenda were assigned to the relevant committees for exhaustive intellectual exercise.
The meeting was also attended by Justice Shakirullah Jan, Judge-In charge of FJA (admn), Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Judge In charge of FJA (Academics), Senator Dr Zaheerudin Babar Awan, Federal Minister for Law, Justice, & Parliamentary Affairs/Vice Chairman, FJA BoG, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany Chief Justice, High Court of Sindh, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahamd Chief Justice, Lahore High Court, Lahore, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Chief Justice, High Court of Balochistan, Justice Ejaz Afzal, Chief Justice, Peshawar High Court; Peshawar, Mahammad Masood Chisti, Secretary Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Maulvi Anawr-ul-Haq, Attorney General for Pakistan, Dr Waqar Masood, Federal Secretary Finance, Dr Faqir Hussain Registrar Supreme Court and Parvaiz Ali Chawla, Director General FJA.