Honourable the Chief Justice Peshawar High Court and Chairman the KP Judicial Judicial Academy has approved the establishment of a mediation center. The Dost Muhammad Khan Mediation Center, to be inaugurated very soon, shall function within the Academy. In this respect, a press briefing was arranged by the Director KP judicial Academy on....
Talking to the media, the Director General Hayat Ali Shah highlighted the various features of the mediation center. At this occasion, Barrister Dr. Adnan Khan, Director Research KPJA, Mr. Qazi Jameel, DIG Police and Ms. Sharmeela Rasool of the UNDP Pakistan was also present. The Director General said that the present adversarial system of administration of justice results in a win loose situation. As an outcome, the loosing party engages in an endless litigation and a civil case may result in a criminal case. On the other hand, we a have an established system of alternative dispute resolution in the form of jirga. The system has been functioning for centuries, and has been delivering to the society. Nonetheless, this system is normally blamed for a disregard of human rights. Furthermore, the system has not been institutionalized and there is no ownership of it in the state sponsored system of administration of justice. The purpose of establishing this Center is in fact to institutionalize the system of alternative dispute resolution.
It was said that there will be a panel of trained mediators with the Center. Mediation proceedings in the Center will be initiated by a court's reference or by a written request of the disputant parties. The proceedings will be conducted in a state of the art hall in the Academy premises with state of the art facilities. A psychologist will be appointed to assist the mediators in doing counseling of the disputant parties. The Center will also assist the mobile court in settlement of disputes.