Salary of judicial officers: no adequate steps taken to remove disparity: CJ

Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Saturday said that although the respective provincial governments have taken notice of the matter of disparity in the salary of judicial officers, however, no adequate steps have been taken to remove it.
Therefore, he expects from the provincial governments that they will remove this disparity so that judicial officers should perform their duties with devotion and dedication, after their pressing financial needs are met, he said.
Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was addressing the oath taking ceremony of the newly elected body of the Karachi Bar Association, held at Sindh High Court lawns here.
He said indeed, the provincial governments need to fulfil their constitutional responsibility of early disposal of cases. To do so, they have to take steps and take necessary measures, he added. He said if salaries of judges in all provinces are compared, it becomes evident that these figures are at variance. Whereas, the Special Judicial Allowance in Punjab is three times of the basic pay, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa it is equal to one basic pay.
He noted that the government of Balochistan has recently agreed to remove such disparity gradually. He said the issue of backlog/pendency of cases is not new. For long, it has remained a problem of great concern and lots of efforts have gone into the process of removing the complexities of procedure being adopted for disposal of cases.
The CJP said always undue advantage has been taken of these technical and procedural complexities of the judicial system. Such legal principles and procedures are meant to prevent the miscarriage of justice and guard against unfair dispensation of justice, he added. He said early disposal of cases is not only our problem, it is also an issue of both developed and developing countries.
According to a report, there are almost 30 million pending cases in different courts in India, but India is a large country, thus the ratio of pendency is higher as compared to Pakistan, he said. Justice Chaudhry said this is due to difference in population ratio between the two countries. But developing countries are continuously striving for reduction of delays.
In Pakistan also many commissions and committees have been established to resolve this issue, he added. He said number of cases pending in district judiciary is much higher as compared to High Courts and Supreme Court. The annual survey after the launch of National Judicial Policy showed that all over the country, 90 percent cases are pending before the district courts and 10 percent before the Supreme Court and High Courts, he said.