|
|
|
| November 19, 2005 | Saturday | Shawwal 16, 1426 |
Proposals for better judiciary
LAHORE, Nov 18: Supreme Court Bar Association president Malik Mohammad Qayyum has proposed a uniform retirement age of 65 years for the Supreme Court and high courts judges with cent percent pecuniary benefits upon superannuation as one of the steps to ensure independence of the judiciary.
Mr Qayyum said at a news conference her on Friday that judges of the superior courts had to be above financial temptations after retirement to rid them of pressures. It was for this reason that they should not be offered any employment after retirement.
He said the government was already paying 75 per cent pension to judges after retirement and if the percentage was raised by another 25 per cent, it would make no meaningful financial impact on the exchequer.
He favoured seniority of judges for elevation to the Supreme Court as enunciated by the apex court in the Al-Jihad Trust case. If this yardstick was to be applied, there was no room for junior judges to be elevated and seniors were retained, he added.
Also a former judge of the Lahore High Court, Malik Qayyum said the international donors conference to raise funds for the quake victims would have acclaimed more credibility had the government invited leaders in exile Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to attend it.
He said the government was yet to produce an agreement under which the Sharif family was sent in exile for 10 years.
Since he was the counsel for Shahbaz Sharif, he said there was no such agreement existed at all. Even if there was such an agreement, it had no validity in the eyes of law because no-one could be deprived of fundamental rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1973 constitution. Citizenship was the most fundamental right and no government could prevent any citizen from returning to his home country.
Malik Qayyum said the SCBA was beginning a dialogue with key leaders of the country on the state of the constitution, democracy and parliament once in three weeks. Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Altaf Husain, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, Isfandyar Wali, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Qazi Husain Ahmad and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz would be invited to the programme called “SCBA Encounter”.
He said the bar would send them invitation and would not hesitate in seeking the help of courts in securing the presence of exiled leaders. He said the SCBA would also hold seminars on the constitution, form of the government, the role of judiciary and if the holding of general elections was the need of the hour. Besides, it would lend full support to the Supreme Court in celebrating its golden jubilee next year and co-sponsor an international judicial conference as part of the celebrations.
About his meeting with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry at Islamabad, he said it was successful as the chief justice had assured him that a regular bench of the apex court would start functioning at Peshawar from January and its benches in Lahore would continue working till the backlog was cleared.
Raising the representation of Sindh in the apex court was also discussed.
The SCBA president said the chief justice had also agreed that SC judges would resume hearing of cases of urgent nature like stay order, eviction, unlawful occupation of property, custody of the child, education and habeas corpus.
He said speedy and cheap dispensation of justice was the need of the hour. It was more important than utilizing the Asian Development Bank-sponsored ‘Access to Justice’ programme funds for raising infrastructure which did not guarantee the improvement in quality of justice, he concluded.
|
|
|
|
