Admitting one’s own shortcomings
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed did not mince his words when expressing his dissatisfaction with the judicial system; he conceded that there were deficiencies in it, saying certain targets of the judicial movement were yet to be achieved. But he was not depressed because he believed that judiciary was part of the solution, not the problem.
The CJ was responding to criticism by some members of the legal fraternity at a ceremony organised by the LHC Bar Association’s Rawalpindi chapter on Friday. He gave patient hearing to those who scathingly criticised the attitude of some judges and demanded that before appointment their conduct, capacity and capabilities should be examined.
There is no doubt that our judicial system is replete with substantive deficiencies but what is significant is that the chief justice of the country’s biggest province admits it publicly. “My responsibility is to the extent of Punjab, where too the situation is not satisfactory,” he said, adding about 85 percent of the entire litigations was in this province.
There is no disputing his assertion that the number of judicial officers in Punjab was comparatively less than other provinces. But this might not be the only reason for abysmally low rate of disposal of cases at the level of subordinate judiciary; the fault lies with delay in the submission of challans and the system of police investigation which remains extremely flawed. It was, however, good to hear from Chief Justice Azmat Saeed that he was responsible for ensuring access to every citizen who was living in his jurisdiction.
As for the superior judiciary, it was rightly observed that it could not deliver what the people had expected of it after the restoration of judges. It certainly got involved in other issues. The situation would have been different had it focused on resolving important constitutional matters than taking cognisance of the secondary issues which fall in the executive’s domain.
