- Timely and affordable justice, pro-investment climate and strengthening democracy
Getting timely and less costly justice remains a dream despite a highly active CJ who works overtime. What is needed is that the SC concentrate on formulating the rules for lower courts to decide petitions within a stipulated time limit along with an efficient implementation mechanism. The CJ’s surprise visit to a lower court in Sindh allowing electronic media to follow him and throwing a judges’ mobile phone onto the desk generated a controversy instead of creating the intended impact. As the Karachi Bar Association resolution has maintained, a sustained improvement in the performance of district courts is only possible through dedicated attention to the structural, procedural and human resource management issues that plague our lower judiciary.
The court should do well to leave contentious issues like the Kalabagh Dam to politicians who alone can create a national consensus on it. It should however suggest to the government to go for other non-controversial dams. The tendency to take populist stands can harm the system instead of improving it. An example is the rhetorical question posed by the CJ: “Why don’t we direct the government to take over all private schools charging heavily?” Pakistan practices free market economy where entrepreneurs make heavy investments to earn profit rather than for pleasing the Almighty. If they are allowed to run hospitals as business concerns, providing service only to those who can afford heavy bills, and the lawyers allowed to set up costly law firms to help secure justice only to those who can afford their heavy fees, why can’t educational institutions be run by investors as business concerns? Instead of suggesting that the government take them over there is a need on SC’s part to enforce the constitutional provision that requires the government to provide free and compulsory education up to a certain age and direct it to divert a much bigger chunk of funds to education to hire better educated and better paid teachers, good labs, libraries and grounds for sports. There is a need on the part of the apex court to avoid doing anything that scares away the investors or endangers a fragile democracy.
