LAHORE-The subordinate judiciary is still far behind to deliver justice to the masses owning to heaps of pending cases, shortage of judges, corruption of clerical staff and procedural bottlenecks, and access to speedy justice and shortage of judicial officers (judges). It is time that Arbitration Councils be set up at Union Council so that 50 per cent cases could be resolved through Arbitration Councils at the door steps of the people The speakers expressed these views at a seminar on the topic of 'Problems of the Litigant Public in the Subordinate Judiciary and Their Solutions held here at Hameed Nizami Hall organised by Daily The Nation and Nawa-I-Waqt on Monday. The speakers included Judicial Activism Penal Chairman Azhar Siddique Advocate, PML-Q MPA Amna Ulfat, former judge Khawaja Mehmood Ahmed, and Lahore Bar Association (LBA) President Sajid Bashir. Azhar Siddique in his address said that corruption can only be eradicated from lower judiciary if the whole system is revamped with reforms and regular monitoring. He said the judicial policy needs some major changes to revamp the judicial system in the best interests of justice and the litigant public which most of the time spends whole life in the hope of justice. He proposed that a Think Tank comprising retired judges should be set for doing a planning work for upgrading judicial system which may give real justice to the public. He said the existing law does not allow adding up new application in the under trial cases and separate application are required for every single matter which causes delay in justice and a burden on courts. PML-Q MPA Amna Ulfat said shortage of judges in subordinate judiciary and load of pending cases in the court has crippled the judicial system and people waste their time and money pursuing their cases but still they do not get justice for years. She said most of the problems faced by general public are linked to the prevalent system of kutcheries and police stations, which deny justice to the poor people. She said the in a bid to reduce load on the courts the arbitration councils should be set at Union Council level. She said that about 50 per cent cases could be resolved at Union Council levels if the institution of Arbitration Councils is set up at the doorsteps of the people. Amna Ulfat linked progress with justice saying a society that denies justice to its citizens cannot grow as a nation. LBA President Sajid Bashir said corruption has become integral part of lower courts and it is hard to get even a copy of an order of judge or date of next hearing without paying bribery to the court clerks who do not hesitate in accepting bribes in the court rooms. About the raising pendency of case in lower courts LBA president said 90,000 civil cases and 95,000 criminal cases are pending in the lower courts of only Lahore and there are just 51 judges for these cases who have to hear daily about 450 cases. He said shortage of judges is failing the judicial system and the national judicial policy of the Chief Justice as judges cannot give even three minutes to every case, which is fixed for hearing in a day. He said hearing over 400 old cases and accommodating new cases also is impossible for any judge. Former judge, Khawaja Mehmood Ahmed said with the induction of national judicial policy and sincere efforts of Chief Justice Lahore High Court and Chief Justice of Pakistan, corruption has been controlled to a large extent and courts are on the way of providing speedy justice to the people. However, he admitted that number of judges must be increased for easing the load on the court. He appreciated the Punjab government for increasing salaries of judges and said that Punjab government has also set up a judicial academy for training judicial officers as per the national judicial policy. He lauded the monitoring system of Chief Justice LHC Khawaja Muhammad Sharif who is making efforts to curb corruption in lower judiciary. Answering a question, he said if a judge is honest the staff of his court also fear accepting bribe and honesty prevails in the courts of honest judges.