KARACHI, May 10: Speakers at a seminar titled ‘Role of the media in independence of the judiciary’ at Karachi Press Club on Thursday appreciated the media for infusing vigour into the campaign for independence of the judiciary and said the time was ripe to continue the movement in the interest of the country and the people.

Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim, commenting on the movement for the judiciary, said the people were witnessing the beginning of a new tomorrow. “We want to be ruled by the law and not by an individual,” he said and added that the people wanted the constitution to be implemented in its real form as it was the heart of a republic. He said the Constitution of 1973 was made in a long period of 26 years but the rulers de-shaped it ruthlessly as they willed.

“How a single person can be allowed to amend the constitution,” he said and added that Pakistan was not created for the army. He said being the founder of the country, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah never used his authority to dictate things but always referred to the constitutional documents of that time. He said the people wanted a government to be elected under the Constitution of 1973 and asked for holding of free, fair and transparent elections under the auspices of a neutral government and an impartial chief election commissioner.

Justice Fakhruddin said the atmosphere had totally changed and asked the generals to return to the barracks and focus on their actual duty of protecting the country’s frontiers. He also criticised the Supreme Court of Pakistan for validating the ‘doctrine of necessity’ whenever the generals asked for it.

President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Abrar Hasan said the issue like that of disappearance of hundreds of people, privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills and other suo motu actions could be the main reason for the action against the CJ.

Akhtar Hussain, Sajjad Mir, Idree Bakhtiar, Khwaja Naveed, Farooq Abul Hassan, Maqsood Yousufi and Naqeeb-ur-Rehman also spoke at the seminar, organised by the Karachi Union of Journalists (Dastoori).