CJP announces model courts for speedy trials
islamabad — Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa has announced the setting up of model courts in every district of the country to conduct daily trials so that speedy justice to the public could be provided and the massive backlog of cases could be reduced.
The announcement was made during a meeting of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (NJPMC) at the Supreme Court building in Islamabad.
The committee was presided over by the chief justice and attended by chief justices of the Federal Shariat Court and high courts.
Khosa said that Article 37 (d) of the constitution requires the state to provide expeditious and inexpensive justice thus under the light of this principle, model trial courts will be established in the country to carry out trials daily.
He spelled out the steps on how this would happen. A trial schedule will be provided to lawyers and prosecutors so that they can follow it to a tee.
In case, the lawyers are unable to appear before the court on the day of the case, they will have to let the model trial court know who will replace them so that the trial is concluded within the stipulated time frame.
Then, to ensure the timely conclusion of cases, model trial courts will not grant any adjournments.
The attendance of witnesses would be ensured through process servers for which (SP-investigation) police officers of each district will act as a focal person liaising with
the process servers. A process server is a person who serves legal documents (summons) to someone involved in a court case.
Khosa said for the timely production of medical witnesses (those who have serious health complications and cannot appear before the courts), the secretaries of the relevant
health departments would be approached. A monitoring and evaluation cell under the supervision of CJP or chairman NJPMC will oversee the workings of the model trial courts. The performance of these courts would be reviewed every two months, the chief justice added. —