KARACHI: The Sindh Minister for Home, Prisons and Forests, Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Mirza has said that the scope of community based justice system in the province will be widened under Gender Justice through Musalihat Anjuman Project (GJTMAP).

"A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will soon be signed with the Local Government to streamline its mechanism," he observed here Friday while reviewing a report in this regard compiled by his consultant on Planning and Home Affairs, Sharfuddin Memon.

The project is aimed to provide easy justice mechanism to people at grass root level and reduce the influence of jirga system.

In his report to the Home Minister, Sharfuddin Memon pointed out in his report that the National Project Manager, GJTMAP has suggested for signing a MoU between the Home Department and local government department in order to stream line, institutionalize and ensure timely referrals and amicable dispute resolution by the Police and Home Department.

He also referred to the follow-up communication received from Project Manager, GJTMAP according to which such Musalihat Anjumans (MAs) were functioning in 5 districts of Sindh province including Shikarpur, Dadu, Sanghar, Jacobabad and Shaheed Benazirabad.

He said there was also a proposal with regard to curriculum development for orientation training for police officials at provincial, district and sub-district levels.

"The Project Manager, GJTMAP has emphasized that the curriculum development may be formulated jointly under the guidance of Home and Local Government departments addressing areas such as human rights, Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) etc" he noted.

He observed that MAs have proved to be very helpful in reducing gender related violence due to the influence of the community in monitoring repetition of offence, the success, he added, of the MAs has in turn reduced the workload of the Police as well as Courts.