Newly-appointed Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Sheikh Azmat Saeed will make his maiden address to the LHC Establishment at 11am today (Saturday) to give his future “work-plan and guidelines” to his colleague judges, judicial officialdom, judges of district judiciary and court officials.
Judges of all LHC benches, including Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur and Principal Seat Lahore will be present at the LHC lawn facing The Mall. Azmat has performed one and half days in the court as CJ after his oath on Thursday but has yet to make some major decisions to run LHC affairs and other courts of Punjab as per his vision. Talking to Pakistan Today about the first address of the new CJ, officials revealed that the CJ would take colleagues judges and officers of the court into confidence about the possible “reformative steps” he has on his mind as CJ to run the affairs of the historic court.
They said that the CJ was also going to announce very clear “directions” and “guidelines” to the district judiciary of Punjab for making access to justice easy for the people of the province, who are suffering “injustice” on many fronts starting from police stations to courts. The officials said that the CJ has the mind of a “reformist” so he would hopefully want to simplify to the maximum, the ‘complicated judicial procedures’ which often hamper dispensation of justice to the litigant public.
They predicted that Saeed as CJ will make a difference in the province, which will be remembered for long as he plans to smoothen the working of the judicial system for practically achieving the targets sets in the National Judicial Policy of the CJP. The style and approach of Saeed is no doubt different then his predecessor Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry but he will also continue to strive for eradiation of corruption from the judiciary like it was done in the former CJ’s tenure. Ijaz Chaudhry had terrorised session courts, civil courts and LHC judges during his anti-corruption campaign in the judiciary but it remains to be seen yet how Saeed will do “the hard job of cleaning the House”.
Another biggest challenge for the new CJ of the 150-year-old historic court would be giving working tips to LHC’s “untrained judges” appointed in 2010 and 2011, many of whom are letting down the dignity of the court by their unlearned and unsatisfactory judicial work. It has been often alleged by lawyers and the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) that many LHC judges do not know how to conduct court proceedings and dictating orders, directions and judgments in open courts.
