Strict legislation should be done to curb corruption: BHC CJ

LAHORE: A two-day judicial conference on arbitration settlement of international disputes concluded here on Sunday. Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court (BHC) Naeem Akhtar Afghan participated in the concluding session on the second day of the conference. On this occasion, Justice Jawad Hassan of Lahore High Court (LHC), other LHC judges, former chief justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Justice ® Mushir Alam, Justice Nadeem Akhtar of Sindh High Court (SHC), Justice Faisal Kamal and Justice Syed Yusuf Saeed along with a large number of foreign ADR experts and senior lawyers were also present.

Addressing the closing session of the conference, BHC Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan said that the two-day judicial conference had meaningful discussions, and discussed in detail alternative methods for delivering justice. He said that the process of accountability is necessary in every department, lawyers have to do their own accountability, while the process of accountability needs to be accelerated in the judiciary as well.

BHC chief justice said that the process of effective accountability is ongoing in the district judiciary of Balochistan. The best results are coming out. He lamented that effective accountability is not given much attention in our state institutions and foreign investment is non-existent due to corruption. There is a dire need for effective legislation for white-collar crimes in Pakistan.

Naeem Akhtar Afghan said that one thing is clear from the conference that arbitration system is very important in the judiciary of Pakistan, our young lawyers should understand the importance of ADR because it is our future. A lot of cases are delayed because our lawyers do not appear in the courts with proper preparation due to which the cases suffer unnecessary delays.

He said that proper training of young lawyers is not being given full attention, which is regrettable. He concluded that strict legislation should be done to curtail corruption.

Earlier it was informed in the conference that a total of 3,84000 cases are pending in all the superior courts of Pakistan including Supreme Court of Pakistan, Federal Sharia Court and all high courts of the country. As per the overall data 53200 cases are pending in the Supreme Court, 104 in Federal Sharia Court, Lahore High Court 180,000, Punjab district courts 1,387,000, Balochistan High Court 4951, Balochistan district courts 16,312, Sindh High Court 86,000, Sindh district courts, 125,000, Islamabad High Court 70,500, district courts 51,500, Peshawar High Court 43,000, district courts of KPK 266,000.