‘Justice on Wheels’ still on brakes, two years after its initiation

PESHAWAR:

The ‘Justice on Wheels’ or mobile courts project remains idling in the driveway instead of travelling across the province – despite having been proposed in the year 2011.

Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan had proposed the project nearly two years ago to provide quick justice for litigants who could not afford to travel to courts in other cities.

The plan is meant to resolve petty civil disputes and criminal cases at the earliest and at involved parties’ doorsteps – speedy justice at a low cost.

The travelling courts would of course also mean fewer cases on the docket for existing courts.

Two laws – criminal and civil mobile court acts – were drafted and sent to the provincial law ministry to be tabled before the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly for legislation. However, the K-P government seemed least interested in legislating it even though several requests had been made by the advocate general’s office.



CJ Khan has been quoted as saying donor agencies have provided well-equipped vehicles for the mobile courts and they were ready to put the pedal to the metal and start ‘justice on wheels’.

Yet the chief justice questioned why a few sectors from the government were creating obstacles for the launch of the programme.

“Justice on wheels will travel to each village and both the parties will be summoned to appear. Judges will listen to both parties and resolve disputes on the spot with lesser time and no cost,” CJ Khan had said.

Since everything, including the vehicles, was in place, on February 16 a six-member team comprising judges from K-P left for Manila.

The judges, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program, had gone to examine the mobile courts system closely.

Upon its return, the team had to prepare a proposal for the launch of the mobile courts as everything else was ready to go, said one of the visiting officials.

What was set to be inaugurated in 2012 is still locked away in the garage, despite assistance from the international community.

On Saturday, CJ Khan stressed that the newly-elected government legislate for the mobile courts. It has been suggested the travelling courts would be launched in Peshawar, Bannu, Chitral, Malakand and Abbottabad in the first phase.

For those living in areas far from existing courts, the ‘Justice on Wheels’ project would be a reprieve, a thoughtful addition to services which could help litigants save time and money. The question is, will this government kick-start the project?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2013.