- Obsolete laws and fossilised attitudes need modernising
The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) did not mince his words while addressing Bar members during inauguration of a modern judicial complex in Charsadda on Friday. The building seems to have satisfied the aesthetic tastes of Charsadda chapter of the legal fraternity, for the last time a new judicial complex was set up at Multan in December 2017 the brand new structure was vandalised by rampaging Bar members, who disapproved of its location and lack of facilities, resulting in arrest of 39 lawyers, including the Bar president. It is also disturbing that the well-educated, professional legal community is increasingly prone to taking matters into its own hands these days, resorting to violent behaviour, even facilitating the flight of recently convicted clients, ignoring the conflict of interest or ethical aspect in accepting cases, and generally being complicit in the policy of dragging on cases, ideally to the next generation of the client.
Realising that the judicial status quo, as is indeed now the case with most pivotal national bodies, is no longer tenable or workable, the CJP has in effect called for reforms in the institution as well as in petrified mindsets, if the judiciary is to fulfill its essential function of providing swift, impartial and inexpensive justice to all. Maintaining that the time had come for the judiciary to deliver in fact, he urged passage of legislation appropriate to the present times to replace obsolete and outmoded laws, training of judges geared towards speedy disposal of cases, while lamenting the decades’ old cases still outstanding, in order to make the whole system people-oriented and friendly. The politicised and gladiatorial lawyers, who have regrettably become part of the problem, the various Bars and the Law and Justice Commission, should act in unison with the Bench in bringing about the urgently-needed changes.
What is equally important is the need on the part of the SC to give more time to cleansing the Augean stables of lower judiciary. It is here that most of the complainants have their first encounter with the judicial system and find it to be rife with corruption and inefficiency.
