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JAN - MARCH  2011

Construction of Federal Judicial Academy Phase-II

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Judicial  education

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FEDERAL JUDICIAL ACADEMY

ISLAMABAD

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Hon'ble Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Chief Justice of Pakistan/ Chairman Board of Governor

inaugurating foundation stone of the construction of Federal Judicial Academy Phase-II on 8th July, 2011

At the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony

Speech

by

Mr. Parvaiz Ali Chawla, Director-General FJA

My Lord the Chief Justice of Pakistan Hon’ble Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Judicial Academy, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan/Incharge (Administration), FJA, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan/ Incharge (Academics), FJA, Hon’ble Judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan, Hon’ble Chief Justice and Judges of Federal Shariat Court, Hon’ble Chief Justices and Judges of High Courts, Hon’ble Attorney General for Pakistan and the distinguished guests!

Assalam-o-Alaikum

2.        It is indeed a matter of great pleasure and honor that My Lord the Chief Justice of Pakistan, is presiding over the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Phase II of the FJA.

3.        I welcome from bottom of my heart the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan and all the distinguished guest, on this auspicious and historical occasion of Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of the Phase II of the Federal Judicial Academy, Islamabad.

4.        I may at the very outset share with the learned audience that the judiciary being third pillar of the state has an important role of administration of justice. The judiciary is thus an all time relevant and important institution of state with which people interact to ensure that their rights are enforced in accordance with law. Hence, for a competitive and effective judiciary, the state has a responsibility to provide sufficient and reasonable resources.

5.        The society has a continuous change phenomenon and thus the institutions that are established for the society also need to keep a pace with such change so that their relevance and importance is not diminished. Thus, the judiciary has to know the societal changes for enabling itself to administer justice, which not only meet the standards of just administration of laws, but is also relevant to the times in which it is being administered. This is only possible, if the members of the judiciary are provided training and education on various issues relevant to the needs and demands of the society. A responsive and effective judiciary is always more trusted, and it has to ensure that no one is above the law.

6.        My Lord ! In 1988, Government of Pakistan established Federal Judicial Academy through a resolution dated 14th September 1988.  In 1997, the Federal Judicial Academy Act, was passed by the Parliament and the Academy was given the status of a body corporate with its own seal and perpetual succession. However, the Board of Governors remained a judiciary controlled body to maintain its independent status. It is so, because, the judiciary is the best judge of its own training and educational needs.

7.        The aims and objects of the Academy were defined as under:

(a) Orientation and training of new judges, magistrates, law officers and court personnel;

(b) In service-training and education of judges, magistrates, law officers & court personnel;

(c) Holding of conferences, seminars, workshops and symposia for improvement of judicial system and quality of judicial  work; and

(d) Publishing of journals, memoirs, research papers and reports, etc.

8.        The Academy is being run by its Board of Governors, headed by My Lord, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, while Chief Justices of all the four High Courts, the Federal Law Minister, the Federal Law Secretary, the Attorney-General for Pakistan and the Director General of FJA are its members. Right from its genesis it is a judiciary controlled institution.

9.        The Academy conducted its pioneer pre-service course for newly appointed judicial officers in September-October 1988. An era of institutionalized judicial education and training, thus started. Thereafter, many courses, symposia, conferences and seminars were conducted during the past two decades. Initially, the Academy was housed at a rented building. After sometime, the efforts were made to have its own campus which was materialized through the plot allocated to the Academy for construction of its present structure, which include a hostel and administrative block. The existing building was finally completed in the year 1994-95. From 1988 to 1995, the Academy conducted 49 training programs.  After shifting to the present campus, the judicial education turned towards new heights.

10.      The faculty was appointed by the Board of Governors, consisting of district and sessions judges. For technical subjects, outsourcing was always used to be the best and quality trainers for the Academy.

11.      The independent status given to the Academy helped in improving the working of the Academy where it can take its own decisions according to its needs. The improvement in the working was evident from the fact that the Academy prepared its curriculum in the year 2002 and also conducted the first of its kind training needs assessment (TNA) for the judiciary. It was to give a direction to the judicial education so that the judges and magistrate are trained on weak areas for improvement of justice delivery in a qualitative manner. In 2009-10, under the leadership of Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Academy took another vital step towards improvement in its working by issuing its first ever Annual Calendar, whereby the programs were defined, having measurable objectives. This development helped the Academy to have long term planning of judicial education, keeping in view the changing circumstances that the Academy has to focus more on in-service training and education of its subjects, i.e., judges, magistrates, law officers and court personnel. By the Grace of God Almighty, the Academy has now prepared its 3^rd Annual Judicial Education Calendar for the year 2011-12. It is also available on the website of the Academy. The Academy has conducted 175 training programs for judicial officers etc, since its inception. Only in last two years, 44 training programs were organized and conducted wherein more than 1000 stake holders of various categories including 200 lawyers of District Bar Association Rawalpindi, were imparted training. It gives me immense pleasure to mention here that with the blessings of Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Academy imparted training to 200 members of District Bar Association Rawalpindi, in four sessions, for the first time, in the history of Federal Judicial Academy. The thrust of the last two years’ programs was on implementation of National Judicial Policy, 2009. The approved annual budget of the Academy is Now Four Crore Ninety Lac, which definitely needs to be enhanced in accordance with the expanded role that the Academy is going to take up soon, after the approval of uniform service rules for promotion of judges, linked with compulsory training at the Federal Judicial Academy.

12.      Hon’ble guests! At this juncture, I may also humbly add that the Academy is in active collaboration with a number of world renowned judicial training institutions and other organizations dealing in administration of justice for imparting the judicial training to its subjects. It thus, leads me to conclude that the FJA, is now being recognized internationally as a premier institution for imparting judicial education to all its subjects in Pakistan, at the Federal level.

My Lord!

13.      Going back to late 1990s, the BoG decided to acquire the adjacent piece of land, for enhancing the capacity of the Academy. It was always under consideration of the BoG to improve the Academy upto the level of a Center of Excellence, in judicial education. Therefore, after deliberations in different BoG meetings, the Academy finally decided and remained successful in getting the plot for expansion of the Academy’s physical infrastructure. Deliberations were made on the user requirements and the role of the Academy in the wake of establishment of the provincial judicial academies. It has been finally decided that the FJA will concentrate on in-service training, while the provincial judicial academies will cater the needs of pre-service training programs for judges, magistrates, law officers and court personnel. It has also been decided that the Academy will provide training to judges and magistrates for their promotion to next ranks. This also made it a mandatory step to have the construction of phase II of the Academy at the earliest.

14.      In early 2009, fresh user requirements were defined for designing of proper building structure on the adjacent plot. The initial efforts to have constructions of Phase II of the Academy were taken up by the Access to Justice Program (AJP). However, the project could not be implemented due to unavoidable circumstances and the judicial crisis in the country. The present construction plan, was approved in Board of Governor’s meeting held on 6th June 2009, under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan. It was only possible due to active role played by the Hon’ble Judges Incharge of the Academy Mr. Justice Mian Shakiruallah Jan and Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani.

15.      Hon’ble guests! My Lord the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan has a versatile vision of judicial education. His Lordship is of the view that the Academy must improve its working upto the level of a center of excellence in judicial education where not only the training aspect is taken care of but opportunities for higher education in judicial administration, court management, ADR and in new and emerging intellectual property & cyber laws may be provided to judges, magistrates, court administrators and the others, who are interested in this field. Hence, it has been decided that in due course of time, LLM and PhD courses, will be offered in the Center of Excellence.

16.      During the discussions about the user requirements of the Academy, it was observed that the Academy is mostly focusing its activities to the judges and magistrates, while other human resources of justice sector, i.e., law officers and court personnel are not given due share in training and education. Hence, it has been decided that there must be independent departments in the Academy that can cater for needs of every category of trainees provided in the FJA Act, 1997. Therefore, six departments have been proposed in the new structure that will be built on the adjacent plot of the Academy. These departments are:

1.     Department for Judicial Training and Education (for judges and magistrates)

2.     Department for Prosecutors, Public Defenders and Law Officers training and education (for law officers)

3.     Department for Court Administrators and Court Personnel Training and Education (for court personnel)

4.     Department of Research, Curriculum Development, Publication and Linkages;

5.     Department of Seminars, Conferences, Workshops and Symposia

6.     Department of Information and Court Technology

17.      Hopefully, the departments proposed will provide concentrated judicial education plans for their own target groups, using modern teaching tools. The Judicial Education Policy can be prepared to further enhance the focus of training for any particular year.

18.      Regarding the facilities that will be available in the new campus, I am delighted to inform the august audience, that the Phase II will be having an extended hostel, suites for faculty members, state of the art computer labs, class rooms and mock trial rooms. It will also be having space for a big judicial law library. It will also cater for the needs of electronic resources. The Computer labs will meet the needs of 21^st century to provide the backbone to the district judiciary for training facilities in IT and through online educational programs. The audio visual rooms have been proposed to have facilities for creating judicial education movies, CD ROMs, audios and other online data for trainees. The façade of the building is designed having Pothohar touch, which is environmental friendly and energy efficient. Women judges in sufficient number have now entered into the field of judicial service, therefore, facilities for females have been proposed to cater their needs, e.g., a Day Care Center will also be built.  Needs of special persons are also taken care of while designing the structure of building.

19.      The Academy is an educational and training institute for justice sector. It is an investment in the future and investment in the human resources. Its impact cannot be measured in immediate terms. The output will be quality of justice administered in the courts and that is an un-measureable target in terms of its immediate impact on the society.

20.      Finally, I would like to give some brief financial status of the project. The project of Phase II was initially approved by the AJP at the cost of Rs.108 millions in the year 2003. However, due to changed user requirements and enhanced structure, it is finally approved at the cost of Rs.987.66 millions. It is hoped that the Academy will soon achieve the status of an important institution in Asia and beyond. The cooperation and participation of all the stakeholders, i.e., AJP, NESPAK and Pak PWD is highly appreciated.

21.      Before parting, I extend my profound gratitude to Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan for sparing his precious time for gracing the occasion and also for His Lordship’s vision that has caused the dream come true about the improvement of judicial education sector. I am also greatly thankful to all the esteemed guests, for joining us today in this memorable occasion. Thank you once again.