Senior legal advisor of World Bank, Peter Kyle, met Minister of Law, Justice & Human Rights Wasi Zafar and law secretary former Justice Mansoor Ahmed, to review the progress in Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation project, here on Wednesday.
Official sources told Business Recorder that the WB representative reiterated that the International Finance Corporation was committed to the project and had signed a MoU with the Sindh High Court on October 12.
Peter Kyle appreciated the co-operation and efforts of the law ministry to promote and institutionalise the process of mediation in Pakistan, and said that once the Mediation Centers were in place, their positive impact on Pakistan's judicial system would serve as an example for other countries where heavy commercial litigation was causing huge backlog of court cases.
The sources said that under the MoU signed between the ministry and IFC an ADR Pilot Centre would soon be functional in Karachi to introduce and incorporate the mediation, conciliation and arbitration mechanism in the country.
They added that the ministry recognised that commercial dispute settlement in Pakistan had created a huge backlog in court cases and as an essential part of the ongoing judicial reforms process, the mediation mechanism has been initiated to introduce "speedy" and "cost effective" resolution of court-referred disputes.
The sources said that at first the ministry provided infrastructure and related support to the IFC for the project, and was now preparing legal framework to incorporate and enhance the mediation process in the normal judicial practice.
"After drafting and vetting of the required law the next step would be physical establishment of the Mediation Centre by the IFC, in consultation with the ministry, courts and the stakeholders," they added.
The sources said that law ministry and IFC had agreed upon certain steps to ensure that once in place the mediation mechanism do not become redundant and the stakeholders are encouraged to accept resolution of disputes through mediation and arbitration as a legal practice in Pakistan.
They pointed out that mediation was a diluted form of arbitration, during arbitration process courts can look into the cases but in mediation the courts do not interfere and once referred to a mediation centre, the court remains out of the proceedings of the mediation centre and when mediation is successful the court implements the decision.
The sources said speedy resolution of business and commercial disputes under the umbrella of the courts is a timely requisite to encourage foreign and local investors to do business in Pakistan.