Khwaja Wajih-ud-Din
Work ethics are an important component of the working as a team. The inculcation of work ethics was the reason for success of the team of an unprecedented level.
Exercise of discretion was eliminated. Each and every decision taken by the decision makers, especially writing of the PERs, disciplinary actions were properly documented and were minute to avoid chances of manipulation later. It was noticed that previously the minutes just mentioned PERs to have been written without actually specifying the assessment to be good, very good and average or below average. This practice was abhorred by the district judiciary. The complaint was that it was manipulated, later on, and it gave a lot of discretion and the officers of the court. Hence proper documentation eliminated chances of exploitation and mismanagement of all involved.
Division of labor was followed in the letter and spirit. It not only increased efficiency, but also resulted in quick and time bound disposal of routine matters. It also helped in capacity building of the team members. Regular press conferences to apprise media about court policies and performance were held to ensure transparency, impartiality and openness. I was told that it was the first time that the registrar of any court addressed the media regularly.
On the human resource management, establishment of sessions and civil courts in the newly created district Kohistan Lower, Kolai Palace and Chitral Upper were made and additional human resource of 33 persons was sanctioned from the government. 93 posts of various categories were created in the Peshawar High Court. 253 posts including 22 senior civil judges were created in the District Judiciary. 34 posts of Additional District and session judges were created in the District Judiciary. 907 posts for erstwhile FATA including seven district and session judges, 14 additional District and Session Judges seven senior civil judges and 24 civil judges were created in addition to that 63 posts for Child Protection courts including seven additional District and session judges were created. Unprecedented promotions were made since July 2 018 to 2021. 55 additional District and session judges, 76 senior civil judges and 112 Civil Judge got promoted, addressing a serious concern of the judicial officers. The concept of senior Civil Judge admin was introduced for smooth running of affairs of the court along with their job description. Job description prescribed under the law was made of other officials working in the court like computer programmer, computer operator, budget and accounts assistant, CCTV operator etc. organizing workshops, online trainings was a regular feature
Regular interaction through video link with the district judiciary was made to discuss different topics like human resource management, training need assessments for capacity building, operational activities of human resource including postings and transfers leave management and non-no objection certificate etc. A comprehensive report on human resource gap analysis was prepared and shared with the district judiciary.
To help the authority in making different important decisions profiling of judicial officers on scientific lines was initiated. Through this step positivity and negativities of the concerned judicial officers was made part of the program for help of the authority in decision making.
For maintaining the rule of law monitoring and evaluation along with automation and digitization are sine qua non.
Establishment of data analysis wing was one of the achievements that we are really proud of. It helped in planned, efficient and effective monitoring and evaluation standards. Pendency of cases and existence of backlog continues to be one of the major problems in Pakistan. For addressing this issue a flagship program of two performance years was followed by five years monitoring and evaluation policy from 2020 till 2025. Dependency in the District Judiciary showed substantial decrease due to the criteria’s laid down. Annual inspection parameters were laid down through inspection performers and same were made known to the entire district judiciary beforehand so that they may be able to know the standard of the performance to be evaluated.
A total documented and authentic inspection data of each of the judicial officers was placed before the admin committee for assistance while evaluating their performance
Work ethics are an important component of efficiency. Illegal exercise of discretion doesn’t further the interest of justice and FairPlay. It had to be eliminated for promoting merit. There was perception that each and every file including the routine matters has to reach the top. The concept of division labor was followed in the letter and spirit. It not only increased efficiency, but also resulted in quick and time bound disposal of routine matters resulting in capacity building of the team members.
In the words of the late Chief Justice Hon’ble Mr. Justice Qaiser Rasheed Khan, The compilation reflects the performance of the Peshawar High Court, Peshawar during the period i.e. July 2018 to July 2021 in achieving certain goals. Team work indeed promotes the work place synergy, the results of which have been explained in detail in the report. Perusal of the report shows that it covers the performance of the Peshawar High Court in the field of administration, human resource, monitoring & evaluation, automation & digitization, rule making & drafting, financial management, planning & development, research and publication, court and record management media and FATA integration. These achievements augur well for the administration of Justice and would indeed open a new era of progress in the years to come.
(The writer is Ex-Registrar of Peshawar High Court)
— Concluded
