Pakistani judiciary completely supports CPEC, CJP tells Chinese counterpart

BEIJING: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar met with Supreme Peoples Court of China (SPCC) president Honourable Zhou Qiang during an official visit to Beijing on Thursday.

According to a press release by the Supreme Court (SC), the purpose of the CJP’s visit to China is to attend the 13th meeting of the Presidents and Chief Justices of the Supreme Courts of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states. He is accompanied by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Umar Ata Bandial.

While speaking to Qiang, Nisar said that the Pakistani judiciary completely supports China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a flagship One Belt One Road project and is committed to resolving commercial disputes for the smooth sailing of all projects under the CPEC’s umbrella, the statement read further.

Nisar also said that Pak-China ties are supported by the people of the two brotherly countries, adding that the SC had “recently held a detailed meeting of all federal departments/ministries with special focus on CPEC”, and that the apex court had “also issued directions to the lower courts to refrain from issuing final orders on CPEC projects unless the other parties have been heard”.

Furthermore, CJP Nisar briefed SPCC President Qiang about the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the Pakistani and Chinese judicial institutions had signed on the CJP’s last visit to China in 2017.

“Judicial cooperation between [the] two countries has started gaining momentum and there is huge potential for bilateral exchanges in the fields of arbitration, judicial training, automation of judicial systems and use of technology,” reads the SC’s statement.

The CJP’s Chinese counterpart, while acknowledging the Pakistani supreme court’s services, stated that Pak-China ties enjoy the “full confidence of the leadership of [the] two countries”.

Moreover, the CJP and his two-person team informed the SPCC president about the recently concluded Judicial Conference, and extended an invitation to attend the upcoming judicial conference on arbitration in Pakistan.