Islamabad: Chief Justice Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar has said Bad governance and injustices have plagued the society and this can be reversed and the vision of Quaid achieved by ensuring that rule of law, transparency and accountability prevails in the country.
“Unfortunately, Pakistan has deviated from Quaid’s vision, bad governance and injustices have plagued the society and this can be reversed and the vision of Quaid achieved by ensuring that rule of law, transparency and accountability prevails in the country”, he said this while addressing the opening ceremony of the judicial year 2018-2019 of the supreme court of Pakistan held here at the Supreme Court of Pakistan Building on Monady.
We tried, as the guardians of the Constitution, to play our part by involving ourselves in various constitutional and human rights matters either through the Court or the Human Rights Cell. To name a few, these matters of public importance included undisclosed foreign accounts of Pakistani nationals, dual nationality of government officials and judges, non-payment of salaries to media employees, killing of members of the minority Hazara community in Quetta, inadequate medical services at various hospitals, depletion of the water table at the Katas Raj Temple and the extraction of ground water for commercial usage without payment of charges, revamping of medical, dental and law colleges, and practical implementation of Overseas Pakistanis’ right to vote via Internet-Voting. To my mind, one of the biggest feats of the Supreme Court of Pakistan was the direction to the Government of Pakistan to immediately begin construction of the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dams in order to address the issue of water scarcity and security that Pakistan currently faces. We were overwhelmed by the nation’s response in the form of generous donations for this national cause and the confidence the nation placed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The primary concern of all these initiatives was to ensure enforcement of the various fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, and while we discharge this duty, let me remind the Bar that it shares the burden of this duty with us and must contribute as counsel and amicus curiae to ensure that the task of upholding the spirit of the Constitution is given utmost primacy. We have spent enough time being complacent, it is now time to proactively search inwards and rectify the wrongs within the legal system.
He said at the start of previous judicial year, a total of approximately 37000 cases were pending adjudication in this Court out of which near to 19000 cases were decided. While this year the rate of disposal was higher than the last five years, the number of pending cases nevertheless increased slightly. A major contributing factor to the backlog of cases is frivolous litigation.
“We must remain hopeful and aim high, resolving that the courts of the country will become symbols of unfettered justice to all our citizens and our lawyer community will become a beacon of hope for them. The common man must not suffer at the hands of the justice system – the very institution from which it seeks justice” ,he underlined.
