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ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry presides over the meeting of Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, at Supreme Court’s Building.
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ISLAMABAD, August 21 (Online): Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has stressed the need for eliminating corruption from the judiciary and stated that a major surgery is required to cleanse the judiciary from this scourge.
Three meetings were held here Friday under the chairmanship of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Chief Justice of Pakistan and Chairman Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan.
In the meeting of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, besides the Chief Justice of Pakistan, other members of the Commission, namely, Justice Ch. Ejaz Yousaf, Chief Justice, Federal Shariat Court, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Chief Justice, High Court of Baluchistan, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, Chief Justice, High Court of Sindh, Justice Tariq Parvez, Chief Justice, Peshawar High Court, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Judge, Lahore High Court, Justice (Retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq, Justice (Retd) Mansoor Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, Mrs. Nasira Iqbal and Abdul Qadir Halepota, Advocates and Dr. Faqir Hussain, Secretary, Law and Justice Commission attended the meeting.
He said that he would not tolerate corruption in any form and the Chief Justices on the whole should have a zero tolerance for corruption.
The Commission considered the provisions of Sections 11, 13 and 14 of the Offences of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance 1979 and found that the single punishment of "life imprisonment" leave no discretion with the courts to award a lesser punishment where the circumstances of the case so warrants.
This necessarily results in giving benefit to the accused to secure acquittal he said adding that the Commission stressed that there should be some alternative punishments prescribed so that in an appropriate cases punishment can be awarded as per the facts of the case and the involvement of the accused in the crime.
The Commission, therefore, recommended that the punishment of imprisonment for life may be substituted with imprisonment which may extend to 25 years.
The Commission further took notice of violation of provision of Section 7 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 by not forwarding notice of 'Talaq' to the Chairman of the Union council by the husband which puts the wife in difficulty if she contracts marriage on the expiry of period of 'idit' but the husband reports against her for contacting marriage.
To avoid this eventuality, the Commission recommended that in case if husband fails to send notice to the Chairman the wife may give notice in this regard to the Chairman and send a copy thereof to the husband and the Chairman will initiate conciliation proceedings upon such notice.
Further in case of a woman exercising 'Talaq Tafveez' (delegated divorce), she must send a notice to the Chairman and send a copy of it to the husband and if she fails, the husband can also send such a notice to the Chairman of the Union Council. The Commission therefore recommended that the law should be amended accordingly.
The Commission also considered that the punishment of fine of Rs. one thousand on non registration of Nikkah under Section 5 of the Muslim Family Ordinance has lost its deterrent effect in view of devaluation of rupee and inflation of the economy, therefore, by amending law the amount of fine of rupees one thousand may be substituted by rupees ten thousand.
The Commission further recommended a suitable amendment to Section 10 of the Family Court Act 1964 to the effect that in a suitably the wife on the sole ground of khula, there should be no trial and the court should issue decree of the dissolution subject to return of mehr by the wife to the husband.
The Commission further took notice of service charges being deducted from small deposit holders whose balance in the account falls below Rs. 5000. Furthermore, the Bank arbitrarily deduct amount from the accounts holders who close their accounts.
Furthermore, the Bank arbitrarily fix rates of profits after deduction of administrative in other charges and thereby pass on very small profits to accounts holders.
The Commission noted that such practice are arbitrary and unfair to the general public and in particular the low income groups and poor sections of the society. It, therefore, asked for a report on this issue from the State Bank of Pakistan for consideration in the next meeting.
Another meeting of National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee was held under the Chairmanship of Chief Justice of Pakistan and attended by other members of the Committee, namely, Mr. Justice Ch. Ejaz Yousaf, Chief Justice, Federal Shariat Court, Mr. Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Chief Justice, High Court of Baluchistan, Mr. Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, Chief Justice, High Court of Sindh, Mr. Justice Tariq Parvez, Chief Justice, Peshawar High Court, Mr. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Judge, Lahore High Court and Dr Faqir Hussain, Secretary, Law & Justice Commission.
The Committee considered the establishment of Small Claims and Minor Offences Courts in the provinces and observed that instead of assigning the cases under the Small Claims and Minor Offences Ordinance 2002 to the sitting judges to try them alongwith the other cases the existing judges may be designated to solely perform work under the Ordinance or provincial governments may create some fresh vacancies at least one in each district for the purpose.
The Committee also sought feed back of performance of the existing courts as designated and observed that if High Courts on the Alternate Dispute Resolution can be conducted for such Judges.
It constituted a Committee headed by Mr Justice Tassadiq Hussain Jillani, Judge of the Supreme Court and a Judge each from Provincial High Courts to propose guidelines for imparting training of alternate resolution of disputes.
The committee resolved that all High Courts may direct to the lower courts to hear the cases of imprisoned women and children on priority basis and if there is any problem of prisoners transport to the courts the cases may be transferred to court where there is no such problem and the woman and child prisoners may be released on parole frequently.
The Committee considered the progress in automation of Supreme Court and the High Courts and directed the concerned agencies for standardization of data base for all the High Courts and a uniform code may be prepared for the purpose for consideration in its next meeting of the Committee.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan/Chairman Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan also chaired the meeting of the Governing Body of Access to Justice Development Fund and attended by Mr. Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Chief Justice, High Court of Baluchistan, Mr. Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, Chief Justice, High Court of Sindh, Mr. Justice Tariq Parvez, Chief Justice, Peshawar High Court, Mr. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Judge, Lahore High Court, Mr. Justice (Retd) Mansoor Ahmed, Secretary, Ministry of Law & Justice, Mr. Tanwir Ali Agha, Special Secretary (Finance) and Dr. Faqir Hussain, Secretary, Law & Justice Commission.
The Governing Body endorsed the allocation of Rs. 58 million to various fund management windows and approved the criteria and procedure of funding projects from the Access to Justice Development Fund.
The Governing Body constituted a Technical Evaluation Committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan for evaluation of the projects seeking funding from various Fund Windows.
The Governing Body resolved that a research on the law laid in the judgments of the superior courts may also be conducted to explore the new trends and developments in laws.
The Governing Body sought regular periodic feed back of the expenditure made out from the allocation of the fund to various fund windows.
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