Reducing backlog of cases top priority: CJP

New chief justice vows to make SJC effective in resolving complaints against superior courts

ISLAMABAD: Newly appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Monday told the Supreme Judicial Council that their top priority will be reducing the massive backlog of cases pending before the courts, while he also vowed better self-accountability against not only judges, but also errant lawyers.

“Due to the [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] dharna, the cases were adjourned as litigants and lawyers could not appear before the courts and it increased the unnecessary backlog,” Justice Jamali said while addressing a ceremony to mark the beginning of judicial year 2015-16 in Islamabad on Monday.

Justice Jamali noted that the time taken to hear and decide petitions against the 18th and 21st Amendments had also cost the court two months. Additionally, an entire bench was lost for several months to hearing petitions against allegations of rigging in the general elections.

Giving details on the backlog of cases, he said that while the superior judiciary had worked through their summer vacations to dispose of 15,000 cases, as many as 26,000 cases were still pending. Between August 2014 and August 2015, 17,000 new cases had been filed while 600 cases had been restored, with 24,000 carrying forward from the previous year.

The SC’s human rights cell had 12,305 pending before it, while it received 26,731 fresh complaints in the last judicial year. Of these, 28,034 complaints had been resolved with only 11,002 cases pending. The cell for overseas Pakistan received 2,055 complaints of which 1,394 had been disposed of.

Vowing to ensure effective hearings of complaints against the superior courts (Article 209), the CJP said self-accountability should not be one-sided.

The policy of self-accountability should not be one sided as the bar should also adopt the same principle and decide all complaints against lawyers as well.”

Two slots open in SC

Justice Jamali noted that with the retirement of three judges from the superior court in the past year, including Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Athar Saeed, three slots had opened up in the apex court.

One of the slots was filled by the elevation of Justice Maqbool Baqir from the Sindh High Court. The remaining two seats, Justice Jamali said, will be filled soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2015.