HYDERABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said the judiciary had worked hard to ensure enforcement of Articles of the Constitution without any fear or favour. He said no one would dare take on the judiciary and those who had done on Mar 9, 2007 were unaware that lawyers are united and powerful to challenge such acts.

The Chief Justice was speaking at a reception hosted in his honour by the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) Hyderabad chapter late Sunday night in the high court premises.

Supreme Court judges Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Chief Justice Sindh High Court Justice Maqbool Baqar and other high court judges were present at the event.

Chief Justice Iftikhar said Pakistan needed a system based on equality and parity where no one was discriminated against, adding that lawyers who had been part of a historic struggle still had to go a long way for achievement of this goal.

Chief Justice Iftikhar said the lawyers’ community in Hyderabad had always supported him. He said it was a historic moment when lawyers had shown their love for him after a general asked him to quit. “I pay tribute to those judges who had stood for the cause of the judiciary then,” he said.

He said that he had started his journey from Hyderabad and it was ending in the same city. “I am discharging my responsibilities in accordance with the Constitution,” he added.

He also said that he had completed his tenure successfully and quoted a paragraph from the observation of International Commission of Jurists regarding the CJP and Pakistan’s judiciary which said that verdicts given by CJP were landmark

The Chief Justice said every person would have to work hard to ensure a just system in the country. “The men in black coats and ties cannot do it alone”, he remarked.

He moreover said people should pay heed to how the poor people were leading their lives, adding that they needed to ensure their welfare and fundamental rights in accordance with the law.

Separately, the Chief Justice deplored the conditions of the educational sector in view of reports sent to him by judicial officers. The judicial officers had been directed in a suo motu case to visit all ghost schools and submit a report. He said children sit under open skies to acquire education or they remain occupied by influential persons, adding that even Islamabad was no exception where schools were operated illegally as the federal government looked the other way.

He observed that the Karachi lawlessness case was taken up by the Supreme Court and what the government was doing in the country's financial capital to ensure law and order was due to the apex court’s directives.

The Chief Justice also paid rich tributes to the newly-appointed Chief Justice and Justice Maqbool Baqar.

President HCBA Nisar Durrani and General Secretary Ayaz Tunio also spoke on the occasion.

While alluding to former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, Durrani said the dictator who had attacked the judiciary was now facing ignominy while CJP was holding the highest position in the country. He said the country needed more courts and the High Court also required more judges.