LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar said on Friday he laid the foundation of judicial activism in the country with full bona fide.

“This judicial activism was never meant to interfere in the jurisdiction of other institutions or to humiliate anyone,” Justice Nisar said at a farewell dinner by the Lahore High Court Bar Association. “It was not an aggression.”

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar: Herald Person of the Year 2019

Chief Justice of Pakistan-designate Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan and other judges were also present.

Justice Nisar said he always kept in mind the constitutional limits of the judiciary and other institutions. The sole purpose of his visits to hospitals was to ensure correct utilisation of government resources.

The chief justice said he would have made mistakes intentionally or unintentionally but whatever he did was for the rule of law only. He reiterated that he never tried to disgrace anyone.

Sharing his experience of holding open courts, the chief justice said he met people in public hospitals having no money to buy medicines.

He regretted that the people were not getting justice in time in courts. “We also miss quality of arguments by lawyers in the courts nowadays,” added the chief justice. He advised the judges of district judiciary to do their work like a passion, and not a job.

The chief justice said he witnessed top lawyers of their time like Ijaz Batalvi and SM Zafar advancing arguments in courts well before joining the legal profession. “My association with Lahore High Court is 56-year-old as I used to visit this premises with my father during my school days,” he said.

“My whole life, I tried to become a fair judge as it carries a great reward in life after death.”

He urged lawyers to do hard work as they were part and parcel of the judicial system. He lamented that petitions being filed under section 22-A of Cr.P.C (against non registration of FIR) had hijacked the courts. He said the judges were not supposed to ensure registration of cases.

He pointed out that a police reform package was going to be introduced on Jan 14 in Islamabad with the support of the law and justice commission.

Chief Justice Nisar told the bar with a pride that Supreme Judicial Council had decided all the pending references against the judges and was left with two only. The judiciary was holding its accountability on merit, the chief justice added and urged the lawyers to also put their house in order.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2019