Online system: SHC seeks performance reports of special courts, tribunals

Courts were meant to send regular reports via an online system but failed to do so.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has sent reminders to the heads of the special courts and tribunals, calling for regular performance reports in cases relating to terrorism or money laundering and corruption.

Officials privy to the development told The Express Tribune that the reminders were recently sent to 51 special courts and tribunals, asking to start submitting their monthly performance reports regularly by using the court's online Case Flow Management System (CFMS).

The provincial high court had launched the online software to regularly monitor the performance of its subordinate judiciary, including the civil courts and special courts dealing with terrorism, financial scams, corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, Customs duties and wealth tax evasions.

"The high court had issued letters to the heads of these tribunals and courts in December last year, directing them to get [connected] to the online CFMS and start regularly sharing their performance reports," said Justice (retd) Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, who is the in-charge of the project.

"All of them were directed to report to the SHC within one month but they failed to do so. Therefore, reminders have been sent to comply with the earlier directives," the official added.

By the end of last year, there were 28,645 cases relating to corruption, financial scams, money laundering, Customs duties and tax evasion, banking, wealth tax and others, which were pending adjudication before these tribunals and courts. These also include the special tribunals set-up to deal with cases relating to growing violations of environmental laws and illegal encroachment on public and private properties.



"Under the project, 560 subordinate courts working under direct administrative and judicial control of the SHC have been computerised and linked to the online network," explained Justice Sherwani, who is also the chairperson of the SHC's Member Inspection Team (MIT). Regarding the special courts working under the direct control of the high court, he explained that all 19 anti-terrorism courts working across the province, including 10 in Karachi, have also been linked to the system.

Explaining the monitoring mechanisms, Justice Sherwani said that it is binding on every judicial officer to feed the data of pending cases every day.

"On the basis of such data, the IT department prepares analytical and comparative reports on each court's performance for the perusal of the provincial chief justice," he added. He maintained that the system can help the provincial judiciary monitor the workings of the subordinate judiciary as well as the special courts, question their performance and make better policies for timely disposal of litigations.

The officer lamented, however, that these special courts and tribunals work under the direct administration of the federal and provincial governments. In response to the SHC's earlier notices issued to the presiding officers of 60 courts and tribunals, only nine of them — seven banking courts and one each of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the anti-corruption court — connected within the deadline. Some courts complained that they lack the basic facilities required to go online.

"Some provincial anti-corruption and labour courts reasoned that they didn't have computers or internet facilities," said an official privy to the correspondence. "Instead, they requested the high court to provide them such facilities to bring them under its monitoring radar."

A judicial officer said that these courts were asked to demand such facilities from the provincial government.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2016.