KARACHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday said that no country could progress without rule of law and underlined the need to revamp the laws and system in order to curtail inordinate delay in dispensation of justice.

He stated that unfortunately there were litigation-orientated people in the society and they used to approach courts unnecessarily in rent or other frivolous civil matters, adding that cost must be imposed on such frivolous litigations.

Speaking to lawyers and judges after laying the foundation stone of a proposed new registry building of the apex court at the Pakistan Secretariat, the chief justice said that judges were working hard, but the desired results were not being achieved, hence it had become necessary to introduce reforms and revamp the law and system.

He further said that no country could progress without rule of law and people may lose faith in this system due to delay in disposal of the cases and added that they were trying to introduce reforms in civil laws, but since there was a huge backlog it would be done gradually.

The burden of civil litigation on judiciary could be reduced through mediation and arbitration, he said and added that the judiciary was overburdened as around 160 cases were fixed before a civil judge in Punjab on daily basis.

Lauding the role of Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the chief justice said that they were making efforts to improve the system by introducing reforms and a draft would be introduced in the first week of January to make major changes and improvements in the outdated police laws of 1886.

The CJP said that the country was facing the main challenges of water shortages and growing population and by 2025 Pakistan might experience extreme shortages of water and it was mandatory to build dams and properly manage and utilise water.

Initially, the idea to build dams came after the apex court was informed about the water issues in Karachi and Quetta, he said and added that there was a mafia behind the water shortages in Karachi, but the apex court-mandated commission, working for past eight months, had worked a lot in Karachi and rest of Sindh on water and sanitation issues.

The bottled water companies were paying not a single rupee in tax in the past, but now they would have to pay Re1 per litre and “we are working for a legal solution in this regard”, he added.

The chief justice further stated: “We were living out of our resources since the population has been rapidly growing and it is expected that total population of the country may rise to around 450 million in the next 30 years and that only proper planning could save our coming generations.”

Justice Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and other judges of superior and higher judiciary also attended the foundation stone laying ceremony.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2018