Provinces present progress on dispute resolution cases

The Supreme Court’s (SC) Committee on Arbitral Dispute Resolution (ADR) has emphasised that a mechanism should be developed for monitoring and data collection of relevant cases, and a public awareness campaign should be conducted on its legal framework in Pakistan.

On Wednesday, the second meeting of the ADR Committee was held in the Supreme Court Building’s conference room under the chairmanship of Justice Ijazul Ahsan.

During the meeting, the progress made by the four provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) was reviewed and emphasis was placed on the speedy implementation of the ADR legal framework.

A representative of the Punjab Law Department told the committee that the ADR law has been implemented as a pilot project up to the extent of Lahore.

The chairman of the committee expressed his concern and urged for its implementation as soon as possible throughout the province.

Moreover, the representative further informed the meeting that there has been a lot of progress regarding the establishment of accreditation authority in the province while steps have also been taken to establish a directorate to monitor the data of ADR cases in the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The participants of the meeting were told that the Sindh High Court (SHC) has notified three arbitration centres in Karachi, Hyderabad, and Sukkur.

They were told that training of arbitrators and judges has also been initiated and various steps have been taken to create public awareness about the ADR law.

The Home Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) also informed about its progress and said that the mediators have been notified in 20 districts and notification will be issued soon in the rest of the districts.

The committee was further informed that several developments were also reported for the ICT, including the formulation of ADR Centre Accreditation and Mediation Accreditation (Eligibility) Rules by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the Ministry of Law and Justice.

In the progress report from Balochistan, it was said that the ADR law has been prepared and will be notified soon.

The participants of the meeting were also briefed regarding the training manual prepared for training lawyers and mediators.

It should be noted that Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Atta Bandial has formed the ADR Committee to institutionalise the ADR mechanism in the country.