‘No legal representative in many areas a major barrier in access to justice’

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Most people in Pakistan are unaware of the process of getting access to legal recourse for the redress of their grievances. They are certainly not prepared to deal with the financial implications of litigation.Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) chief Muhammad Zubair Habib said this on Tuesday while addressing an event held at a hotel to launch the 2019 report of the Sindh Legal Advisory Call Centre (SLACC).The SLACC is a legal aid service that was formed in 2018 after the Legal Aid Society (LAS), an initiative of former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, partnered with the Sindh government to provide free legal aid to the people.Habib said the World Justice Project, an international civil society organisation, had ranked Pakistan in its 2016 report at the 81st place among 113 countries for the criminal justice system in its rule of law index, while the country was ranked even lower for the civil justice system.He was of the view that a major reason for that was a lack of awareness among the people about the law and legal procedures. “Women have been subjected to violence... unfortunately, they don’t know where to go [and] what’s the legal remedy available to them,” the CPLC chief remarked.He said that in such a scenario, the SLACC had undertaken the key responsibility to help the underprivileged classes regarding laws and making use of the legal system. The CPLC and the SLACC have been collaborating by sharing their data with each other, he added.Former SC judge Justice (retd) Arif Hussain Khilji, who was affiliated with the LAS after his retirement, said he had initially planned to enjoy his life after retirement. However, he added, when he started offering services to society, it was a shocking experience for him, as he realised how much trouble the common people faced in getting access to justice.He said that now he can sleep peacefully at night, with the feeling that he helped solve a poor person’s problem. Those born with a silver spoon in their mouth have no idea what problems the poor face in their lives, he added. He also thanked the Sindh government for its support to the SLACC. Sharing some of his experiences at the helpline, he said that once a teacher of a private school called them to complain about her very low salary.The former judge remarked that someone who did not know the law might think it was a private job after all and the teacher could quit if she was dissatisfied with her remuneration.He said the law had indeed fixed the minimum salary for such private employees. After the teacher acted on the advice provided to her, she later called the call centre again to inform that her salary had been increased, he added.Citing another example, he said they were contacted by some villagers who complained of no power supply in their village, adding that following the legal advice provided to them, they got electricity within three months.Sindh Law Secretary Shariq Ahmed shared some statistics of the SLACC from July 1, 2018 to December 10, 2019. He said that most of the callers sought advice on civil cases.He informed the gathering that not only did the people of Sindh approach the free legal service but people from other provinces also sought legal advice through the call centre.A total of 42,669 people called the SLACC and of them 82.8 per cent found the advice helpful while 25.4 per cent said their problem was resolved, said the law secretary.The event’s host, Barrister Haya Emaan Zahid, said that as the LAS tried to find out why problems of many people who had approached the call centre could not be resolved, it was revealed that no legal representative in many areas was a major issue that obstructed access to justice.Adviser to the Chief Minister on Law Barrister Murtaza Wahab said the SLACC was one of the prominent examples of successful public-private partnership initiatives of the provincial government. He said the Sindh government was successfully engaging with the private sector to improve the quality of life in the province, adding that Sindh was leading other provinces in terms of progressive legislation.He assured the civil society representatives at the event, including Aurat Foundation Resident Director Mehnaz Rehman, that the Sindh government would not hesitate to make more laws if they identified any area where legislation was required.Wahab said that considering the human rights of inmates, the “roughly 150-year-old” prisons manual has been revised by amending the laws governing the jails across Sindh as part of the provincial government’s ongoing efforts to bring reforms.He said that only Sindh has the honour of launching the process of reforms in the jail laws, adding that another revolutionary project of the government is related to the extraction of Thar coal, through which all of the royalty obtained is spent on the welfare of the locals. The adviser said that the latest research conducted by botanists has provided the opportunity to use subsoil water of Thar for the cultivation of crops.He said the SLACC has been doing an excellent job in providing free legal counsel to its every caller so that every person of the province has been a beneficiary of this initiative directly or indirectly.Wahab, who is also the spokesman for the Sindh government, said that a positive change can be brought about in the province if all the institutions start working within the domain of the Constitution.He said that one of the reasons behind the slowing down of the judicial system is a heavy backlog of pending cases. If the institution of the ombudsman starts working properly, the pressure of the pending cases can be eased off, he added.He stressed that every person who is in the habit of doing frivolous litigation at the expense of the court’s time should also be penalised. Naima Qamar and Maliha Zia presented their research on conjugal rights in the Pakistani law. The research indicated that the concept of conjugal rights in the law through which a person could demand the return of their spouse who had left the house was used against women.Justice (retd) Zahid gave the closing remarks. He said that despite providing the LAS with financial assistance to run the SLACC, the Sindh government never interfered in their work.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2EqAYoo
The News International - Karachi