Institutions have failed to help the aggrieved: CJ
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Monday observed that the Supreme Court would continue to play its role as it could not sit idle when institutions failed to give succour to the aggrieved party.Addressing the opening ceremony of the Judicial Year 2007-08 held at the Supreme Court building, the CJ said that rising expectations among general public that this court was the only forum to get relief was a sad comment on the functioning of state institutions the role of which should be to redress grievances.
The ceremony, attended by senior advocates and government functionaries, marked the opening of the first working month of the apex court after its annual three-month vacations when all justices don their black robes to commence judicial work.
Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum, Pakistan Bar Council vice-chairman Mirza Aziz Akbar Baig and Supreme Court Bar Association president Munir A. Malik spoke on the occasion.
“This court expects all institutions to play their role effectively and efficiently in a manner that wrongs are righted, grievances are redressed and relief is given at the administrative level so that there is no need to resort to judicial action,” the CJ said.
The preceding year, Justice Iftikhar said, was extraordinary for the whole nation and more so for the judiciary particularly the apex court as it was confronted with an unusual situation. “Therefore, extraordinary efforts are required to face the challenge for which the court stood its ground and faced it. The judiciary has showed exemplary unity,” the CJ said, adding that members of the bar demonstrated unparalleled unity and solidarity while civil society backed the legal fraternity.
Justice Iftikhar said that good governance was a buzzword of the present day scenario and considered necessary for economic development and social progress. “It is also essential for creating enabling environment for the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms and sustenance of economic and social development.”
He said that good governance made nations while bad governance marred prospects of sustenance of a nation.
Justice Iftikhar said that entrepreneurs, investors and traders were attracted to countries which practiced good governance as it was no longer enough to offer tax incentives or exceptions to labour laws or to carve out exceptional economic zones. More needed to be done to make foreign and local investors to stay and expand in this country, he added. On huge backlog and prolonged pendency of cases, the CJ said that total pendency on Sept 1 this year stood at 17,226 cases, but the court was determined to handle the backlog.
Precedents of this court had established the principle that this court could exercise jurisdiction even in cases of individual complaints when such complaints indicated a pattern of violation of fundamental rights by a state agency, he added.
