Justice Gulzar Ahmed says family breakdown has horrendous effects for society and judiciary should play a key role in saving this social institution
Supreme Court of Pakistan’s Justice Gulzar Ahmed has advised the family courts’ judges to strive as per law so that the cohesion of family should be maintained by all means.
Addressing the certificate awarding ceremony at the conclusion of a one-week training course on “Effective Administrative/Financial Management, Family Law and Modern Legislation” in the Centre of Excellence for Law and Judicial Education/Federal Judicial Academy (CELJE/FJA) on Saturday, the SC judge said that cohesion of family institution is central to maintaining the stability and improving the quality of their lives.
“Family cases are not just cases but social problems in our society. Families are the cells which make up the body of society, if these cells are broken then the entire society suffers. Family break-up is indeed the collapse of the family unit and it has many harmful effects. A child of such an ill-fated family bears the brunt. He/she remains deprived of the three core humanitarian values such as love, confidence and meaningful provision. A mother cultivates love in him/her for family and fellow beings and a father provides him/her meaningful provision and confidence. We know that the children of broken families always carry the legacy of deprivation throughout his/her life.”
Reconciliation, between the estranged families who come to family courts, should be done in a meaningful manner and not in a mechanical manner, he emphasised. He said family court judges have the onerous responsibility to save this fundamental institution what we call “Family” from break-up and the judges must deal with these sensitive cases with humanistic sense and law.
Regarding the environmental laws, he said, “These are very important laws and unfortunately we are living a society where pollution of all kinds is alarmingly increasing due to our environment-unfriendly actions and the way of living. Judiciary can play a key role in helping to address these environmental problems. It is every body’s fundamental right to live in neat and clean environment and all of us must have to save this environment.”
Justice Gulzar Ahmad also shed light on other subjects such as administrative/financial management, alternative dispute resolution, etc. incorporated in the one week training of the senior civil judges and urged the participants to utilise the knowledge gained to serve the people.
Presenting his welcome speech and an overview of the course, CELJE/FJA Director General Dr Faqir Hussain said, “Trainings are vital and these help on the ladder to career progression. It is also an established fact that well trained employees become more informed, more knowledgeable and more productive.”
At the end, the chief guest awarded certificates to twenty four senior civil judges, two of them female judges, from all over Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmri and Gilgit-Baltistan in the ceremony.
