LAHORE, March 24: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday urged superior courts to introduce “corrective measures” and adopt a pro-active policy in order to dispel an impression that justice was often dispensed later than usual in the country.
Citing speedy justice as a fundamental duty of the judiciary, the prime minister said that “all of us have to join hands to ensure that justice is dispensed swiftly”.
“The government is committed to extending all possible help in achieving this objective because it believes in the independence of the judiciary which guarantees a strong democratic system, rule of law and a dynamic social order,” Mr Aziz told participants at a seminar held as part of the Supreme Court’s golden jubilee celebrations.
Mr Aziz underlined the need for closer bench-bar relations and said such cooperation would go a long way in realising the goal of speedy and inexpensive justice to the litigant public. He also took note of the problems and other issues raised by SCBA president Malik Muhammad Qayyum on questions relating to the appointment of judges, ad hocism in the judiciary and ADB-sponsored “access to justice” programme and said the government needed the cooperation of members of the legal fraternity to get all these problems resolved.
The prime minister said the government was considering plans to set up a judicial academy with the status of a university in order to provide proper legal education in the country. He said the bar should come forward to assist the bench in expeditious disposal of cases and to bring qualitative improvement in the legal profession as well as the overall judicial environment.
He said that the government was aware of the fundamental problems of judicial administration in Pakistan related to access to justice by the poor segments of society, case management and delay reduction, automation of courts, simplification of legal framework and procedures, human resources and its development, infrastructure inadequacy, etc.
“When the rule of law is in danger, it gives rise to lawlessness, threatens democracy, multiplies arbitrariness and corruption, encourages detestable ideologies that grow more violent and vengeful,” he said.
“Such a situation has all the potential for a head-on collision with the state apparatus leading to a temporary impasse that creates what is generally known as a constitutional crisis,” he added.
Prime Minister Aziz said the challenges of the new millennium demanded a paradigm shift in governance if the country was to remain competitive in the global market. He said it was important for the common people and both local and international investors to have access to justice in consonance with the law.
He said adversarial litigation had overburdened the courts and it was through the “access to justice” programme that the government was aiming at major and long term facilities. As for the AJP, he said the government in collaboration with the judiciary and the provincial governments were implementing the programme to address issues related to the administration of expeditious justice and to revamp and modernise the judicial and legal system systems.
