21 February 2004	Saturday	29 Zilhaj 1424

KARACHI, Feb 20: The law and legal process should be made more relevant to the ultimate objective of dispensing justice, Saarclaw President Ms Dhara Wijayatilake emphasized as South Asia's legal experts commenced their 10th conference here on Friday.

"As we meet for the 10th time to discuss issues relating to law and its impact on the lives of our people, we need to be mindful of the serious challenge that we face to make legal interventions more meaningful and more relevant to the ultimate objective of dispensing justice", she said. That is why the theme today reads 'Leap forward - new generation laws'.

The Sri Lankan lawyer added: "We are commuters on the super highway - a highway which has brought with it the good and the evil. The law is one of the most important interventions to handle both the good and the evil. But the law alone is inadequate to ensure that this new highway will lead us to where we want.

"A certain objectivity and a respect for the traditions and cultures of our region need our focus. Our youth need to be veered away from the kind of society that we may be heading towards - the frightening kind of society that was portrayed by William Gibson in his award-winning cyberpunk classic 'Neuromancer'."

The society depicted by the novel, she said, "is a society which is corrupt, decaying, devoid of social interaction, completely controlled by incredible technology used for evil and material gain rather than for social well-being; a society which communicates not as we do now in the real physical world but in a virtual space".

The lawyer said science fictions is but a prediction of what might happen. "I find these predictions very alarming. How much nicer it is to meet as we meet today and make use of opportunities such as these to see each other in the real world and communicate in the traditional way.

It would be quite horrible if we were to hold the 20th Saarclaw conference in a 'virtual world', not in Karachi, not in Colombo, not in any of the capitals of our great countries", she warned.

The Saarclaw president called for a concerted effort to introduce adequate legal interventions to combat trans-national organized crime, terrorism, arms and human trafficking, cyber exploitation, child abuse (through sexual exploitation, exploitative labour and child pornography) and to ensure that our women and children are no longer without remedies when they are victims of abuse.

At the same time, a certain focus is required to deal with the dimensions brought in by advances in the communication technology. Social evolution has been put on a fast forward mode.

Every advance has the potential of shifting economic power. The legal community is challenged as never before. It should make the optimum use of the opportunity offered by the conference to meet the new challenges.

Mrs Wijayatilake said her involvement in Saarclaw had been long and rewarding. "I worked as its secretary-general for eight years since its inception and took over as its president after a two-year break.

As I relinquish the office after a two-year term, I will have the great satisfaction of knowing that the organization has a strong and vibrant presence."

Justice G.H. Malik (retired), president of Saarclaw's Pakistan chapter, dwelt at the history of the organization. He said it was a manifestation of the common aspirations of the people to live in peace, freedom, social justice and economic prosperity.

Its two-fold objective was to bring together the legal communities within the region for closer co-operation and dissemination of information and to use and develop law as a source and an instrument of social change for progress as well as for building cooperation among the people of the region.

MEDIA, CYBER LAWS: Meanwhile, the conference is to take up consideration of vital developments in the media and cyber laws on Saturday.

A session on the freedom of expression will be co-chaired by Justice Umesh C. Bannerjee of India and M. Hafizullah of Bangladesh. Among the speakers are Advocates Zahid Ebrahim and Ahmed Rafay Alam of Pakistan and K.K. Venugopal of India. The session on WTO and regional trade would be co-chaired by Justices R.C. Lahoti of India and C.V. Wigneswaran of Sri Lanka.

Chief Justice V.N. Khare of India is not scheduled to chair any session or address one. The farewell address on Sunday would be made by Justice R.C. Lahoti on his behalf.