The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday gave a month to the federal government for taking a decision on the establishment of 120 accountability courts.
A three-member special judge bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed heard a suo- moto case related to the delay in the trial of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) cases.
The CJP has also sought a report from the Ministry of Law over NAB rules.
During the proceedings, NAB prosecutor prayed upon the court that NAB rules were pending in the law ministry to which the CJP said that the same thing was stated in the previous hearing.
“The attorney general is due to have an important meeting with the prime minister regarding the establishment of NAB courts,” the Additional Attorney General said.
He added that currently, 24 accountability courts were fully operational across the country and that there were no vacant seats in NAB courts.
The apex court expressed its frustration over the non-appointment of a permanent secretary in the law ministry and directed it to appoint one.
“Why is there no permanent secretary in the law ministry?” CJP Ahmed asked. “Ad-hoc system will not work.”
The NAB chairman also submitted a reply on the speedy decision of the cases on the order of the court, said the prosecutor general stated.
The apex court adjourned the hearing of the case for a month.
In September, it was reported that the law ministry had finalised a comprehensive plan to ensure speedy dispensation of justice and to comply with the directions of the Supreme Court to the federal government for establishing 120 accountability courts across the country.
The plan included the overall human resources requirement and financial matters regarding the establishment of the additional courts.
“The federal government has been vigorously focusing to expedite the process of accountability across the board, for which these additional accountability courts would be established,” the ministry said in statement.
At present, there are 24 accountability courts, functioning in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Quetta. In addition, five vacant posts in the accountability courts had been filled through a notification issued on July 14.
Earlier, the government had informed the apex court that Rs2.86 billion per annum would be required to establish 120 such courts. The ministry also informed the Supreme Court that it had started consultation with the relevant stakeholders to set up more courts.
The government reply was submitted after the apex court’s order on July 8, wherein it directed the government to take action for setting up of the accountability courts to clear a huge backlog of cases as well as vacancies in five accountability courts.
Moreover, it was revealed that a total of 975 corruption cases were pending in 24 accountability courts in the country. The figure is much lower than 1,226 pending cases submitted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to the Supreme Court.
The ministry report also shared with the apex court the details of the pendency in each accountability court, pointing out that less than 80 cases were pending in each court, while the average pendency in an accountability court was less than 60 cases.
from News Updates From Pakistan - Pakistani News - The Express Tribune https://ift.tt/3m8GTT2
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