THE Supreme Court has issued directions for establishment of 120 new accountability courts for disposal of all pending cases of accountability within three months. The directive came when a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard a case pertaining to delay in trial of cases by the accountability courts as well as suo motu review petition on court direction passed in cases, regarding grant of bail to co-accused.
At present, there are 25 NAB courts across the country but five of these courts have no judges to adjudicate the cases. It is also ironical that 1,226 references filed by the National Accountability Bureau are pending in these courts. The intervention of the top court is apparently aimed at accelerating the pace of disposal of cases as the number of cases and the speed of their disposal puts a question mark on the entire process of accountability. However, the question arises whether the Government, which could not fill the vacancies in accountability courts for months and years, would be in a position to do so within a week and whether required number of qualified judges would be available for appointment in 120 courts that the Supreme Court has desired to create. Already a judge was dismissed for misconduct and that has raised suspicions and doubts about the quality of judges and their judgements. There is definitely need to have more courts so that proper attention is given to references filed and verdicts issued as per timelines but ability of the NAB to pursue such a large number of cases in all courts is also doubtful if past performance of the institution is an indication. The apex court itself has remarked that the NAB was not working and one fails to understand what purpose the new courts would serve under the prevailing circumstances except burden on the national exchequer. Under the law, the cases were required to be adjudicated in three months but some of them took twenty years, strengthening the widely-held perception that the references/cases are mainly used to victimize people. Speedy disposal, as instructed by the Supreme Court, might come as a relief for such persons.