Judiciary faces dearth of competent judges: CJP

Says 17 out of 3,000 candidates for 74 posts of judicial officers qualified but only one passed English language proficiency test; lack of competent officers paves way for appointment of ex-judges to head federal and provincial judicial academies

KARACHI: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on Sunday pointed out that lack of competent judges in the country were causing difficulties to the superior judiciary.

Addressing the closing session of a conference on judicial education, he said in 2005 over 3,000 applications were received for 74 posts of judicial officers but only 17 met the criteria while only one officer could pass the English language proficiency test out of 200 candidates who wanted to apply for the LLM scholarship offered by a foreign country.

He said the required results could not be achieved unless shortcomings in the legal system were highlighted and addressed in an appropriate manner.On appointment of retired judicial officers as heads of federal and provincial judicial academies, he said advertisements were issued in newspapers but no candidate could qualify the required criteria leaving no option but to appoint retired judges on such posts.

He stressed the need for introducing English proficiency and computer technology courses for judicial officers which should be compulsory for their further promotion.Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said the Pakistani society could not flourish till people were aware of their rights and responsibilities. He said due to a lack of awareness about rights and responsibilities, people could not realise the importance of the rule of law, which was the basic need in the present circumstances.

He said implementation of modern techniques and innovative thoughts was the need of the hour for legal education and dispensation of justice.The CJP urged the judicial officers to take training and courses at the judicial academy seriously and utilise their experience with maximum output.

Earlier, the participants of the conference emphasised the need for assessing the demand of judicial training so that what was delivered matched the actual day to day requirements. It was suggested that ad hocism be removed and the criteria be standardized for recruitment of permanent faculty members.

The participants of the conference suggested that synergies and closer coordination be developed between the provincial academies and the Federal Judicial Academy in order to avoid duplication and maximize recourses, expertise and content development.

The conference was attended by the Chief Justice of Sindh High Court Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Chief Justice of Balochistan Justice Mir Mohammad Noor Meskanzai, Chief Justice of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Justice Mazhar Alam Khan, judges of Supreme Court and high courts, directors general of federal and provincial judicial academies and other judicial officers.