Islamabad High Court Justice Aamer Farooq has said that the prime duty of a judge was to administer justice, therefore, judges should follow the law and never allow their emotions to override their sense of justice.
He expressed these views in the certificate awarding ceremony at the conclusion of a one- week training course on “Role of District and Sessions Judges being Non-Financial Managers in Financial Management and New Laws” for newly promoted District and Sessions Judges from all over Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan here in the Federal Judicial Academy, Islamabad, on Saturday.
He said, “Our superior courts have settled more or less all issues of law and left precedents for us to follow. Remember, law is not like mathematics, whenever you come across any new issue where you cannot find any precedent to follow then just follow the law, follow the statue and give it an ordinary meaning. You have to make an extra effort to find the law as we have nowadays new and emerging laws about new issues, problems, and challenges.”
Lamenting the sorry state of affairs, honourable Judge said, “Right assistance was not being provided to the courts As a result, the standard of judgment writing was deteriorating and dispensation of justice was slow in the country.”
In response to a question from one participant from Balochistan regarding how to overcome the existing gap between the members of district judiciary and those of honourable superior courts, he said, “Frequent informal sessions should be arranged by the Federal Judicial Academy to attain this goal. Academy should make such informal session a regular feature of the training course. Such informal sessions will be greatly helpful to share and learn from each other, which is not possible in formal sessions like this one.”
Presenting his welcome speech and an overview of the training course, Dr. Faqir Hussain, DG of the Academy spoke about the importance of financial management including preparation of budget, audit and accounts for the district and sessions judges who become the heads of district judiciary.
He also dwelt at length on the scope and importance of new and emerging laws such as Cyber crime, Anti –Money Laundering Act, Intellectual Property Rights Laws, Environmental laws, among others.
He urged the newly promoted district and sessions judges to grasp not only law but also gain profound knowledge and understanding of economics, sociology and other related subjects for expeditious dispensation of quality justice in the country.