Mushaal highlights growing recognition of ADR in Pakistan at LAJA Workshop
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Human Rights and Women Empowerment Mushaal Hussein Mullick has highlighted the growing recognition of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in Pakistan. Speaking at a workshop organized by the Legal Aid and Justice Authority (LAJA), Ministry of Human Rights, she emphasized ADR’s potential to alleviate the burden on the overloaded court system.
The workshop featured a distinguished panel, including Senior Judge Federal Sharia Court Justice Syed Muhammad Anwar, DG National Police Bureau Ehsan Sadiq, DG LAJA Dr. Rahim Awan, DG HR Ministry of Human Rights Abdul Sattar, and Executive Director PCHR Choudhary Shafique. Attended by numerous aspiring ADR practitioners, the event aimed at capacity building and training in ADR methods such as mediation, arbitration, and negotiation.
In her address, Mushaal Mullick highlighted various initiatives by the government, legal community, and institutions to promote ADR and integrate it into the legal framework. She outlined the advantages of ADR, including efficiency, cost-effectiveness, confidentiality, and flexibility.
Emphasizing the transformative potential of ADR, Mushaal underscored its core objective to complement traditional courts and reduce the backlog of cases. She pointed out the strain on the judicial system, with 750 cases per judge in Pakistan, making the conventional court trial process resource-intensive and time-consuming.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister said that one of the key functions of LAJA were to provide legal aid/assistance to poor and vulnerable groups, particularly women and children and enhance public awareness of legal aid and laws in Pakistan. She further said that ADR if institutionalized would prove to be a valuable tool in empowering women, girls and marginalized communities because of its quick dispensation of justice.
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Mushaal acknowledged the efforts of the Legal Aid and Justice Authority formed under the LAJA Act 2020 to institutionalize the concept of ADR and establish reconciliatory committees across Pakistan. She further said that these efforts by LAJA would help to prepare a pool of Master Trainers on ADR in the country through capacity building and training sessions on modern ADR techniques and enable the ADR practitioners in dispute resolution mechanisms.
Mushaal emphasized that training ADR practitioners should be our key priority. She further said that the workshop was an important avenue to explore the challenges, opportunities, and new developments in alternative dispute resolution in Pakistan.
