Altaf Hamid Rao.
Justice delayed is Justice denied,
MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times) : Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) judiciary – both superior and subordinate – is facing an acute shortage of judges since past many months ‘apparently’ due to the negligence and indifference of the concerned authorities.
The severe shortage of judges in the Supreme Court of Azad Jammu Kashmir as well as the AJK High Court and certain of the subordinate courts have been causing inordinate delay in disposal of the under trial cases, making the litigants to run from the pillar to post for justice, revealed a survey conducted by our Special AJK Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao.
According to the findings of the survey, the AJK Supreme Court is being run comprising only judge – the acting Chief Justice of the apex court Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan against the sanctioned strength of three judges including a Chief Justice and two permanent judges – since the recent retirement of the CJ Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Zia and Senior Judge Justice Ghulam Mustaf Mughal on superannuation of the stipulated age of retirement.
Similarly, the High Court of Azad Jammu Kashmir is also facing an absolute shortage of judges against the sanctioned strength of nine judges since past many months. It may be added that following the lack of permanent chief justice, the AJK HC is being run by acting Chief Justice Justice Azhar Saleem Baber for more than one year. The AJK HC presently lacks sis judges against the sanctioned strength of nine judges and is functioning with only three judges including the Chief Justice and two permanent judges.
According to the sources, a summary for the appointment of the Chief Justice of AJK Supreme Court and the AJK High Court has already been sent to the Chairman of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Council (Prime Minister of Pakistan) around an year back for issuance of requisite advise.
At the same time, the subordinate judiciary in various AJK districts is also facing severe shortage of judges since past many years. As a result of this number of cases have gathered as compared to the present meager strength of the subordinate courts.
For instance, Mirpur, one of the thickly-populated districts of AJK, is presently facing the shortage of six civil courts since long. At present there are only three civil court includinhg senior civil court against the required number of at least nine civil courts in this lake district of AJK.
Due to the shortage, the Mirpur Senior Civil Court and Civil Court presently have to hear thousands of cases lying pending since past many years, according to the sources.
The legal experts underlined that under normal working policy, a civil court can hear maximum of 350 cases to ensure timely disposal of the cases. And under the recent judicial policy, maximum of 500 of cases could be tried in a civil court anywhere in Pakistan and AJK, according to the experts.
As compared to Mirpur, the districts of Muzaffarabad, Rawalkot and Kotli have five, four and four civil judges respectively presently.
It is to be noted that in recommendations to the AJK government for early induction of at least two civil judges in Mirpur, the High Court had, in the past, was offered meeting all the expenditures of one of the civil courts to be established in Mirpur for a year.
But the proposal is yet to be approved by the competent authorities. On the other hand, legal experts and civil society elders consider it a major dilemma and a cause of delay in dispensation of speedy justice. The former CJ of AJK pointed out that Mirpur was prominently suffering due to lack of number of courts.
Similarly concerned litigants face inordinate delay in disposal of case by the Services Tribunal, established in Mirpur district because of lack of required number of members of the tribunal since long.
Talking to this scribe here on Tuesday, retired Chief Justice of AJK Justice Muhammad Azam Khan observed as saying “true the AJK Judiciary is overloaded because of shortage of required and sanctioned number of judges in superior judiciary as well as in lower courts – particularly due to the absence of permanent Chief Justices of the AJK Supreme Court and High Court. “As a result of the absence of permanent Chief Justices of the AJK Supreme Court and High Court, the judges of the both apex court and the AJK HC can not be appointed”, Justice (Retd) Khan underlined.
To a question Jusice (Retd) Azam Khan emphasized that the acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of AJK Raja Saeed Akram Khan should be appointed as permanent Chief Justice of Azad Jammu Kashmir without further delay to ensure the early completion of both the Supreme and High Courts of AJK through onward appointment of judges against the vacant positions in the superior judiciary, he added.
Justice (Retd) Khan continued that the public at large in AJK, especially Mirpur had been suffering greatly on account of inordinate delay in disposal of cases by the superior as well as subordinate judiciary.
The retired Chief Justice of AJK suggested to the authorities to take immediate steps not only to immediately fill in the much-prolonged vacant positions of the sanctioned number of judges in both the superior and subordinate judiciary but also to raise the number of judges of subordinate judiciary.
