MANSEHRA, Aug 4: District Nazim of Mansehra Mohammad Azam Khan Swati has said that progress and prosperity of a country lie in the independence of the judiciary and strong and powerful institutions.

Swati, who is also an attorney-at-law in the US, was delivering a lecture on “Independence of Judiciary in the USA,” at the Hazara University (HU) campus in Dhodiyal on Saturday evening.

The judiciary in the USA is completely independent and the country’s constitution is valued as a sacred document by Americans for centuries, he said.

The citizens and the institutions in the USA have full confidence in the judiciary and they follow strictly their constitutional norms and traditions.

He said in the USA, the institutions were more important and were never put at stake for the interest of the individuals.

By quoting a number of legal precedents and numerous examples from the history of the USA, Mr Swati maintained that although the country had unlimited powers, its supreme court was completely independent.

He said most cases were disposed of in the USA through reconciliation among the parties or in the lawyers’ chambers. He said very few cases were filed in the courts there, and they were decided on merit.

Unfortunately, a sound political and judicial system has not evolved in Pakistan since its inception and the institutions have often been put at stake by the successive rulers for their own interest, he lamented. This, he said, had resulted in political turmoil and constitutional crises on many a occasion.

The District Nazim also presented a cheque of Rs4.2m to the vice-chancellor of the university, collected as contribution for the HU from the Pakistanis in the USA.