ABBOTTABAD: the chief justice of Peshawar High Court, Syed Muhammad Atiq Shah, has said that the biggest obstacle in dispensation of justice was the poor investigation and termed injustice a poison for society.

This he said while speaking as chief guest at a three-day first international criminology conference at the Peshawar University Bara Gali campus on Wednesday.

He said that injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere. He emphasised transparency and accountability in the process of justice and stressed the need for reforms in the justice system.

Dr Basharat Hussain, chairman, department of criminology, University of Peshawar, in his welcome address, highlighted different aspects of Pakistan’s criminal justice system and emphasised the need for reforms in the colonial-era laws.

The guests included Prof Sajjad Ahmed, dean Faculty of Management Sciences, Prof Muhammad Iqbal, dean Faculty of Numerical Sciences, Prof Jamil Chitrali, Director of Peace and Conflict Studies, Prof Syed Minhaj-ul-Hassan, former dean Humanities, Dr Zakirullah Jan, former vice chancellor of City University, and Akhtar Ali, director NAB.

The managing director Rozan Pakistan, Babar Bashir, said that the criminal justice system was not the responsibility of any single institution but a shared responsibility of all the stakeholders, while the civil societies had to play an effective role in this regard.

In the concluding session of the first day of the conference, national experts presented research papers on criminal justice, social reforms and other topics.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2025