DADU, July 11 Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry has said that the apex court is authorised to interpret all the laws that are inconsistent with the Constitution and warned police's highhandedness will not be tolerated because they have no right to arrest and detain people without any plausible reason.

Speaking at inauguration ceremony for the Sehwan court complex on Saturday, the CJP said that the country has a written and popular Constitution which defines limits and functions of all institutions.

He said that it was incumbent upon higher and apex courts to define and interpret laws and articles of the Constitution.

He said that anything repugnant to fundamental rights or articles of the Constitution could be questioned in the apex court under its own constitutional jurisdiction guaranteed in Article 199 and 184(3).

He praised the federal and provincial governments for supporting the judiciary and said that chief justices of Supreme Court and provincial high courts were empowered to create posts but they needed more funds.

The CJP said earlier while addressing an oath-taking ceremony of the Nawabshah district bar late on Friday night that police's highhandedness would not be tolerated even for a second because police had no right to arrest people and detain them without giving any plausible reason.

He said “We will not tolerate highhandedness of police even for a second because no policeman has the right to arrest any citizen illegally and register false cases.”

He said that after hearing news about criminal assault and murder of a three-year-old girl in Karachi at 3am, he directed the registrar to call IGP Sindh, wake him up and ask him what was happening in the city.

He said that he also asked Justice Ghulam Rabbani of Supreme Court's Karachi bench to look into the case and direct the CCPO and investigators to make proper investigations.

The CJP said that the new judicial policy had been introduced for the deprived and the weak, seeking justice and also for those who complained about slow pace of trials.

He said that presidents of district bar associations and district and session judges from all over the country were called to Islamabad on July 5th to give suggestions for implementation of the new judicial policy.

They decided after deliberating for two days that the policy might need amendments to make it more effective, therefore, a judicial conference had been called in which presidents of all district bar associations, all session judges, DCOs and DPOs would take part and put forward proposals.

Heavy dust-storm and rain started during the CJP's speech but the chief justice did not budge from the stage and continued his address under an Ajrak held aloft over his head by a group of young lawyers.