Lahore High Court Chief Justice Azmat Saeed has said that profession of law is not of a short duration like T-20 Cricket match or a 100 meters race but it is marathon race entailing robust stamina, hence a good capacity and heavy routine must be virtue of the members of the legal profession.
The CJ was speaking to a delegation of faculty members and students of Superior College of Law, Lahore on Tuesday. In the chat with the delegation the CJ said judges in Punjab were being trained on the pattern of military academies and a number of workshops, seminars and symposia were being arranged aimed at capacity building of the judges.
He clarified that no one attached with the profession of law should have the misconception that they have full grasp over the law. The CJ said he had been associated with this profession for a period of more than three decades but he still felt that he was still a student, adding that only a person who knew the law well could get relief from the court.
He said life of human being was not sufficient to know the full technicalities of law as discontinuation of learning means the death of a person. “Those who are in the legal profession should feel lucky since the number of opportunities they have are many,” he said.
About the worth of legal profession in present times the chief justice said “Neither there were such bumper job avenues in the past nor perhaps the same will be available after five years”.
He said like any other profession, a degree was important in law since there was a hundred percent exposure in this field and students had to learn more vigorously. He termed the court as good nursery for learning as surgeons learn from hospital and players from play grounds because tactics and technicalities were not found in the books.
He said after America, Pakistan had the largest number of per capita advocates but their Indian counterparts earn $500 million annually from the Western countries by out sourcing. He advised the advocates to also get their share by dint of hard work and make a name in the lawyer’s community the world over. While talking to female students, CJ said “we are in the process of abolishing gender bias in the Punjab and also included NTS Test in the recruitment process of Judicial Officers”. The CJ cautioned them to be more assertive as they would not occupy the seat of judges by mere rot learning the stereotyped traditional courses of law. He assured them that there were bright chances for them as female students are more focusing than the male ones.
Replying to a question of a student about independence of judiciary, the CJ said “we are heading towards betterment and judiciary of present era is much more independent as compared to the past.” “A man or institution cannot be perfect because perfection is only an attribute of Almighty Allah,” the CJ concluded.
