The Chief Justice of Sindh High Court Sarmad Jalal Usmani has termed the establishment of Access to Justice Development Fund (AJDF) "significant" for the quality of justice services. Addressing the participants of the workshop on "Orientation/ Consultation on Access to Justice Development Fund", organised by Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP) at a local hotel on Monday.
He said AJDF is aimed at training of judicial experts, research and other development works. Usmani hoped that allocated fund will provide assistance in computerising the years old records of various courts. He urged the judicial experts to come forward with innovative ideas to strengthen the judicial system. The chief justice also urged the concerned authorities to hold seminars and workshops for imparting training to the junior judicial experts.
"According to Legal Empowerment Fund (LEF), workshops should be held in court premises to encourage maximum number of candidates," the Usmani added. Earlier, Registrar Supreme Court Dr Faqir Hussain said that the government has set up a statutory endowment "AJDF" to address the chronic budgetary constraints facing by the judicial and legal sector.
Fund is established with Rs 1279 million, which the government is presently providing under the programme loan of Rs 350 million from the Asian Development Bank, he said. The government has provided a flexible and extra-budgetary support to the reforms in the justice sector, Dr Faqir added.
He said that the biggest chunk will be spent for provincial judicial development fund which is 60.3 percent to meet the automation needs and develop the court infrastructure and provide the litigants with the court related conveniences and amenities. Allocation for the legal empowerment fund is 13.5 percent from the AJDF to support initiatives like clinical legal aid to the affected clients whose fundamental rights are violated. Federal judicial academy fund will receive 4.5 percent share for support of judicial training and education and to improve the efficiency of the courts, he said.
Similar amount of 4.5 percent, the fund for innovations in legal education will receive, he said, adding that it will encourage innovative teaching of the legal education and development of curriculum, improvement in the examination system and standards of legal education. The underdevelopment region fund will flourish with 10 percent from the AJDF to undertake projects in the underdeveloped areas to promote legal empowerment, he added.