- Judicial PR drive?
Who wouldn’t be happy, in Lahore at least, that someone very high up has finally taken serious note of issues like unsafe drinking water, cancer inducing milk, ridiculous school fees, even VIP traffic jams? Residents, forever let down by politicians, will thank the chief justice – as they should – mothers will sleep better, and drivers will have one less worry knowing that hospitals might now at least have the instruments to stich their wounds in case of an accident.
Hopefully his serious warnings will prompt the political machinery to, for once, put education, health, etc, higher up the priority list than mega projects, even if the CJ’s threat about shutting down the Orange Line might have, perhaps, tested legal boundaries. Shut down any project, by all means, as long as it oversteps the law. But whether or not His Lordship, in the moment, leaned towards overlording, surely the honourable judges would know better.
However, while the CJ is clearly out on a crusade to improve service delivery in education, health, etc, we hope he will also cast his iron gaze within his own institution. Every Pakistani near and far lent support to the so-called judicial uprising not so long ago because there was a feeling that the ‘revolution’ might also trigger an overhaul of the institution; plagued as it is by decades of backlog, and allegations of corruption and incompetence. The common man’s approach to justice, unfortunately, is just as troubled as areas pointed out by the CJ himself. Addressing this issue would also lend more credibility to this sudden initiative, lest it be taken as just a PR drive since it comes when the superior judiciary faces a barrage of criticism following the Panama verdict. The best way for the whole country to progress, after all, is for all institutions to improve their own performance.