The Government of Punjab is set to open up Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) centres across the province as they open up their first centre in Lahore on 1st June 2017. ADR’s refer to any means of settling disputes outside of the courtroom. ADR typically includes early neutral evaluation, negotiation, conciliation, mediation, and arbitration.
The ADR is being opened in collaboration with the World Bank to handle disputes of low intensity outside the court so that the burden on the High Court can be reduced. The main aim of opening these centres is to provide speedy justice and providing easy access to justice. The World Bank believes this initiative will also help encourage foreign funding into the country and also making it more economically stable.
A team of legal experts are present in the county representing The World Bank, who have met Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court Mansoor Ali Shah , High Court Judges, Heads of High court bar and Supreme Court Bar associations, to hear the main concerns of the lawyers in providing justice so that recommendation may be formed to be presented to the World Bank officials abroad for better justice opportunities.
The team is being headed by Barrister Martin Palmer from London who is being assisted by Mr Zafar Kalanuri who is a renowned Lawyer in the Lahore High Court Bar. While talking to Pakistan Today Barrister Martin said ” currently each case that is filed in any court takes on average 1000-1300 working days to come to a conclusion which is causing a cluster of cases in the courts, due to which the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court has taken steps with help from the World Bank to provide speedy justice to the people of the province.”
While commenting on the current condition of Courts and Judges in Punjab he commented ” the Punjab Judicial Academy is doing a wonderful job in training Judges and i have visited the facility myself and i think it is up to the international standards.”
Vice President of the Pakistan Bar Council, Ahsan Bhoon, told Pakistan Today that there really was a dire need for a justice system in the whole country that could provide justice to the door steps of victims of different cases. He further added ” I have to appear for 25-30 cases every day which might compromise my judgement and my work, so imagine the burden the Judges have on them and you can imagine the justice they would be able to give if they had such a huge stockpile of cases to work on.”
” Some Lawyers take advantage of the situation on ground and prolong cases of many convicts and then blackmail them for more money. Apart from that the Judges are also sometimes forced to go with popular slogans of the time rather than providing pure justice.”
He also emphasised on the need for for new innovations and technologies into the Judicial System of the country.
