The judiciary must be characterised by equality, fairness and integrity in its objective of dispensing justice, as its work is a critical element in the good governance of a state, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Friday.
Addressing the inaugural session of a three-day international judicial conference at the Supreme Court, he said expeditious and inexpensive dispensation of justice was the mandate of the constitution. He said it was the first priority of the judiciary and that was why efforts were being made to improve the performance of justice sector institutions.
He said nevertheless, every system had potential for reforms and improvement to keep pace with the changing times and emerging realities. “This is done partly through the process of exchanging views, sharing ideas and learning from each other’s experiences. We are mindful of this process and for this reason all the stakeholders of justice sector are regularly taken on board either through Judicial Conferences or by taking up their suggestions in the meetings of National Judicial (Policymaking) Committee to further improve the process of administration of justice.”
He said last year’s judicial conference proved highly productive and useful due to the active participation of all stakeholders of the justice sector including academia, scholars, jurists, lawyers, and others. It was unique in the sense that media persons, litigants and prisoners were also invited to attend the conference and share their experiences to develop a workable mechanism to further improve the performance of administration of justice, he said.
He said the judicial policy largely incorporated the letter and substance of recommendations of the working groups in the conference and improvements were made in the trial procedure including non-submission of challan, defective investigations, non-production of under-trial prisoners and other issues having direct bearing on the administration of criminal justice system and stringent steps were adopted to curb the menace of corruption.
The CJP also drew the attention of the participants to a recent Siachen tragedy, where last week about 139 Pakistani troops, were trapped under an avalanche.
He said the world had changed and turned into a global village and most of the countries had joined hands in various fields to their mutual advantage. “There is room for the stakeholders of the justice sector as well, to sit together and explore the possibilities of benefiting from the knowledge and experiences of each other. I am confident that this conference will provide a platform to all stakeholders of the justice sector to review, debate and resolve issues being faced in the administration of justice in the light of their rich knowledge and experiences,” the CJP said.
He said it was for the first time in the history of the country that the chosen representative of people, who took their offices as a result of election taken place on February 18, 2008 had, commendably, stayed away from unconstitutional acts.
He said the Supreme Court had not only imposed restrictions on dictators but the members of the judiciary had also been restrained from providing protection to the unconstitutional acts. He said free, fair and impartial dispensation of justice is a key principle of Islamic system of governance.
