Research centre to be established to help judges: CJP

LAHORE: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, has said the Constitution of the country provides equal rights to all citizens.

The CJP said this while addressing the closing session of the second workshop on gender-based violence laws held in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank at the Punjab Judicial Academy here on Saturday. He said steps were taken to protect the rights of citizens and establishment of the gender-based violence courts was one of those steps. "Our first step is against fake evidence and witnesses and cases against such elements were being proceeded in various courts", he added.

The CJP said the second step is to enhance the capacity building of judges and “we are thankful to the Punjab Judicial Academy which is standing with us in achieving this goal”.

He said police reforms are the third step aimed at welfare of masses and effective steps are being taken in this regard. The top judge said a committee of nine judges has been formed to introduce reforms in police system. He said the committee would work for the better image of police in the eyes of public. He said the next step is setting up of police assessment committees comprising retired sessions judges and lawyers. The CJP said with these initiatives, there was an 11 per cent reduction in filing of new cases in district courts besides 20 per cent reduction in the higher courts.

Each court is being linked with research centre to enhance the capacity building of the courts, he maintained. Justice Khosa said artificial intelligence would bring revolution in “our judiciary and the decision of cases would be made in lesser time”. He said a modern research centre would be established to help judges in provision of speedy justice. He said the facility of voice typing would also be provided to judges.

He said most of eyewitnesses gave wrong testimonies in murder cases, adding that an example should be set while punishing those who gave wrong testimony. He said cases are in progress in different courts against those who gave false testimony. He said: “We are providing standard education to young lawyers and investigators.”

The CJP said 10,600 cases of murder and narcotics were completed in criminal model courts established across the country. The CJP said there is a need of passion to work for people’s welfare and added that Article 10 of the Constitution gave a right of fair trial to all the citizens.

The Supreme Court Justice, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah. said: “Gender-based violence is a very horrible aspect of our society. We have studied this aspect in detail with the collaboration of the Asian Development Bank.” He said the journey which was started from a district and a court now has spread across all the districts of the country.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan said it was need of the hour to make collective efforts to check gender-based violence. He said Islamic basic rights and laws have special position in all laws and rights of the world. He lauded the services of the Punjab Judicial Academy for holding such a good workshop and thanked the Asian Development Bank for their collaboration.