It is a good omen that chief justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi wants to overcome on the basic lacking in the judiciary system, especially he have the aim to tackle the pendency cases. It is a fact in Pakistan that political and main stream cases like the arrestment of Imran khan, always being treated on especial priority but the cases belongs to the masses haven’t take any such attention that is why millions of cases are pending in the upper and lower courts but the good thing is that the CJP, knows all about the weaknesses of the judicial system. Therefor the CJ is giving keen attention to those pending cases. In his first chaired full court meeting since becoming the chief justice assess the performance of the Supreme Court in the institution and the disposal of cases.
The full court meeting was attended by all Supreme Court judges, including senior judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.
According to news in media a statement issued by the Supreme Court, the meeting was convened to assess the performance of the Supreme Court and focusing on measures to reduce case backlog and enhance judicial efficiency.
It is very hope full during the meeting, the SC registrar provided an overview of the current caseload and outlined the steps toward timely decision of cases.
She presented updated statistics, indicating that 59,191 cases were currently pending and introduced a newly devised one-month plan based on Case Management Plan 2023 prepared by Justice Shah.
Thus the plan includes setting clear standards, employing information technology to effectively manage all categories of cases. Reviewing the Case Management Plan the judges discussed a range of strategies to achieve the targets. Criminal and civil cases, as detailed in the monthly plan were allocated to specialized two and three member benches to ensure swift and speedy case resolution. According to Supreme Court’s statement the judges contributed valuable insights and recommendations for further system improvement, underscoring their commitment to addressing case backlog.
Meanwhile Justice Shah also offered additional suggestions aimed at reducing the case backlog and improving procedural efficiency initially for one month and followed by three-month and six-month plans.
At the conclusion of the meeting the chief justice thanked all the judges for their resolve to implement the Case Management Plan in full with a commitment to achieve the outlined targets. The progress will be reviewed in the next session of the Full Court meeting scheduled for December 2, 2024, it concluded.
It should be Remember that CJP Afridi was sworn in as Pakistan’s 30th chief justice on Oct 26, succeeding Justice Qazi Faiz Isa. The top judge is the first to be appointed by a parliamentary committee comprising both government and opposition members constituted under the new 26th Constitutional Amendment passed last week.
On the first day of his appointment, the chief justice reconstituted the SC Practice and Procedure Committee, bringing back Justice Munib Akhtar to the three-member key panel established to fix cases and form benches.
The readers knows that present CJP is the first ever justice who is come through the constitutional amendment by government with the promise that he and his team will fill reform the judicial system of the country but he is not be the first chief justice who made such a commitment to the nation. Actually every justice amongst the above thirty had made promises but the results of those had not come according to the desires of the masses. Therefor the responsibilities of the present CJ, are more important than any other justice in the history of the state.
So it’s hoped that the chief justice of Pakistan will use his team with more dedication and honesty and that would be affect positive our weak judicial system for better rule of law in the country that is at number 129 in the world.
