ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday appreciated the e-court hearing saying that the practice would enable the court to save time and expenditures.

He was virtually attending the proceedings of a sessions court in Islamabad while sitting at PM Office.

Additional District & Sessions Court Judge Muhammad Adnan was hearing a petition which sought damages worth Rs10 billion from former defence minister and PML-N leader Khwaja Asif for levelling allegations against the prime minister of non-transparency in the funds of Shaukat Khanum Hospital.

On Aug 1, 2012, Asif had levelled the allegations during his press conference in the Punjab House and later the same day he repeated the same accusations in a talk show on a private TV channel.

The Prime Minister had filed a defamation suit against Khawaja Asif seeking Rs10 billion in damages.

During the court's proceeding the premier told the court that it was deplorable to use such public health oriented institutes for politics by levelling baseless and fabricated charges. Shaukat Khanum Trust was the only hospital in the world which was running a free cancer hospital, he added.

He hoped that the court would give an exemplary decision in the case so that people could be deterred from leveling baseless allegations against the SKMT in future.

The premier attended the e-proceedings of the court in the presence of his lawyer Senator Walid Iqbal.

The prime minister also said e-Courts will save precious time of the honourable judges and it will also help timely conclusion of the cases.

He said the judiciary and government departments deserve credit for the successful introduction of E-Court.

The country's judicial system is often slow in dispensing justice.

Recently, the World Justice Project had released a 'WJP Rule of Law', which ranked Pakistan 130 out of 139 countries.

The WJP Rule of Law Index is an annual report based on national surveys of more than 138,000 households and 4,200 legal practitioners and experts around the world.

According to the report Pakistan’s overall rule of law score decreased by less than 1% in this year’s Index.

Pakistan’s score places it at 5 out of 6 countries in the South Asia region and 30 out of 35 among lower-middle income countries, the report said.