Khwaja Wajih-ud-Din
As a humble student of law a lot of lessons were learned during my entire career. My tenure in the KP Judicial Academy authenticated my view that the Rule of Law does not only relate to the administration of justice. It is a comprehensive system that encompasses every institution and segment of society and demands that each one of them acts within the four corners of the law.
The role of courts cannot be denied in upholding the rule of law but their roles are limited to corrective justice. The concept has to be implemented in entirety. It has to be based on merit and free from human bias/discretion.
I’ve been fortunate to be the longest serving Registrar of the Peshawar High Court in the Single tenure. It provided me an opportunity to plan, implement, improve, and address major issues as per the actual spirit of the rule of law in accordance with the lessons learned. I selected my team most purely on merit, working ability of the individual, observance of work ethics and capacity to deliver. We always believed in eliminating discretion in the system and making everything public to ensure transparency. I made it a point to hold a quarterly press conference to apprise the media about the work that we were doing highlighting even the shortcomings and how we intended to overcome them.
The working methodology adopted by the team was of ideas sharing, creativity and consensus along with feedback from all the stakeholders to form a consolidated course of action. The basic theme was to convince or to get convinced.
The capacity building of the team resulted in unprecedented five publications. These were report on achievements of the Peshawar High Court, judicial code (two volumes), bridging the gap manual between the courts and masses, inspection report and accomplishment report of the human rights cell.
All these publications were masterpieces to be proud of due to the paucity of space only one regarding achievements would be discussed here.
The achievements can be divided into administration, human resource, monitoring and evaluation, automation and digitization, rulemaking and drafting, financial management, planning and development, research and publication, quote and record management and FATA integration.
On the administration side coordination with the stakeholders were strengthened through the platform of provincial justice committee. Improved collaboration with the stakeholders like Police, Bar, prison and Prosecution etc was a step in the right direction. It was linked with the criminal justice coordination committees at the district level and the contentious issues highlighted by the said committee were discussed and decided after mutual consultation.
All the stakeholders were encouraged to plan their performance for the next year. The meeting was held quarterly to evaluate the work plan of all the stakeholders and its implementation was stressed upon. Enforcement plans were regularly monitored by the provincial Justice committee.
Stress was laid on efficient record and office management. For the first time in the history of the court a proper stock taking was done ensuring that the assets of the court were duly protected from pilferage. There were complaints from the District Judiciary that files moved were never kept a track of and important files were lost without being tracked. Measures like file tracking system, strict adherence to dairy and dispatch and training to the staff on record and file management were introduced to address the issue. Virtual connectivity was established providing access to all the district bars in KP through video link.
Virtual benches of the Peshawar High Court were created at Kohat and Mardan to facilitate the litigants, the lawyers and the district judiciary to save time and cost of litigation. It resulted in promoting coordination between the bench and the bar and resulted in better working environment in the district judiciary.
First ever all Pakistan Registrars’ conference was conducted followed by Virtual Registrars’ conference to deliberate upon common way forward and mutual learning. Establishment of different courts like model courts, gender-based violence courts, child courts small claims and minor offenses court, juvenile courts and virtual courts provided forums to the needy litigants. COVID-19 was a challenge for the entire world. Formulation of COVID-19 strategy of the Peshawar High Court was appreciated by all and sundry.
Financial management, better planning helped in curtailing throw forward liability and as a consequence main projects pending for a long time, like Haripur courts complex, Peshawar High Court Bannu Bench, sub jail at Bisham, KPJA Hostel and many others were completed. The performance also resulted in allocation of extra budgetary allocations for the development projects by the government.
Collaboration was made with national school of public policy for joint training of judicial officers and other stakeholders. The aim was national consensus and mutual learning on matters of public policy, and implementation of the rule of law. As a result of which District Judiciary of KPK is one of the components of the courses of the national school of public policy.
Digitalization of record rooms and enhanced participatory coordination with District Judiciary and systematic human resource mobilization were one of the main focuses. It was a gigantic task. The record rooms not only in the Peshawar High Court but also in the District Judiciary what rapidly digitalized. For that purpose human resource was also provided to the District Judiciary thanks to the contribution of the government.
First ever annual tree plantation drive, cleanliness policy were a regular feature. The plantation drive ensured thousands of trees being planted across the KP. These trees were regularly taken care of by the concerned Judicial Officer for which the record was kept. Whereas The Honorable chief justice himself took the initiative of leading both the tree plantation and cleanliness drive. The results were very encouraging.
(To Be Continued)
