Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa of Supreme Court has said that the district and sessions judges could restore the respect and honour of the district judiciary through their conduct and effective administration of justice to the litigants.
Justice Khosa was addressing the newly-promoted district and sessions judges in the certificate-awarding ceremony of a one-week training course on “Role of District and Sessions Judges, Being Non-financial Managers in Financial Management, Constitutional Jurisdiction of Courts and Other New Laws” at the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA).
Regarding the financial management, he said, “The orientation about the financial management is, indeed, very fascinating. Being a head of the district judiciary, the sessions judge is also the manager and administrator of the judiciary, hence, he has to manage the finance also, thus, this orientation will be extremely helpful to them.”
About the constitutional jurisdiction of the district courts, he said, “The Constitution of Pakistan is very clear and it has not provided the constitutional role to the district judiciary but there are some statutes which have mandated them to play that role in certain domains such habeas corpus and enforcement of fundamental rights enshrined and guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan. When it comes to the enforcement of fundamental rights even our civil courts are mandated to get them enforced. So, get those rights enforced and the superior courts will support you. Here I must mention the powers delegated to the sessions courts as ex-officio justices of peace under Section 22-A and 22-B of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).”
Spokesman of the academy, Hashim Abro said a two-member delegation from Judicial Institute Edinburgh, Scotland, namely Sherriff Welch and Sherriff Duf along with Mark Carroll, Liaison Prosecutor of British High Commission, also attended the certificate –awarding ceremony in the academy and shared their experience and wisdom with the faculty members and training participants.