PESHAWAR: The country’s first ‘mobile court’ in Peshawar decided 30 cases, both civil and criminal, during its first-ever visit to the city’s posh Hayatabad neighbourhood on Tuesday.
Starting its journey from the Peshawar High Court (PHC), the ‘mobile court’ bus, after covering about 15kms, arrived at the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) in Hayatabad where the court’s formal proceedings began at 10:30am amid security arrangements. In the first case, civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate, Syed Fazal Wadood passed the first verdict within ten minutes in a civil matter, as there was a dispute between two property dealers of Hayatabad on payment of commission fee.
The court had earlier referred the matter to its mediators for resolving the dispute of Rs600,000 between the two parties. Soon after the judge started hearing in the case, friends of the court Farhad Ali and Haji Muhammad mediated and told the court that both sides reached a mutual agreement, thus, the court disposed of the first civil nature case within ten minutes.
Moreover, the court also decided five civil cases related to money, property disputes-shops and plots. In these cases, the court ordered a mediation commission comprising two lawyers called friends of the court. Similarly, the court formed a two-member mediation commission in a case filed by Dr Saira Shah against the PDA. The commission will comprise Peshawar District Bar President, Maulana Shamsul Haq and Qazi Ashfaq. The court directed the commission to submit the report on September 4.
The petitioner’s lawyer Ziaur Rehman Tajik told the court that his client owned two kanal of land and established Saira Surgical Hospital near Peshawar Board, adding there are still 13 Marlas land for entry and exit routs for the hospital. However, the PDA had given a notice to his petitioner that she had intruded into the PDA property. Thus a notice for demolishing some parts of the hospital has also been given to his petitioner. It is worth to mention here that the case has been running since 2008 and now the mobile court’s mediation commission will conduct spot visit and decide the matter on next hearing.Apart from that, mobile court also passed verdicts in 24 cases of criminal nature.
The bench decided cases of six Afghan nationals, including Fawad and Muhammad Nabi, who have been arrested by Hayatabad police and charged under section 14 of Foreigners Act. The bench ordered their deportation to Afghanistan after one week imprisonment at Peshawar Central Prison.The Public Prosecutor, Qaiser Khan told that majority cases were fresh as the police had arrested them on Monday night and now produced in the Mobile Court.Earlier, Director General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy Hayat Ali Shah and District and Session Judge Peshawar Shaiber Khan briefed the media persons on purpose and objective of mobile court.
Hayat Ali Shah said that the basic aim of mobile court was to provide expeditious and low-priced justice to the people at their door steps, as many people avoid courts for justice because expenses and non-availability of courts in their respective areas.District and Sessions Judge (DSJ) Peshawar Shaiber Khan said that the mobile court is deciding both the civil and criminal nature cases on the spot. Some 8 judges and 18 lawyers have been trained in the Judicial Academy, who would act as official mediators for mobile court.The mobile court first in Pakistan has been inaugurated by the PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan on July 27. The UNDP has been extending financial and technical support to this project. – TheNation
