KARACHI, Nov 9: The Sindh High Court Bar Association has expressed concern over erosion of peoples’ confidence in the administration of justice. It deplored killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine, and called for an immediate halt to it.

These concerns were expressed during the annual dinner of the SHCBA, on Thursday night, in which former attorney-general Ali Ahmed Fazeel was the chief guest.

The SHCBA President Rashid A. Razvi said the system of justice was overloaded like a coiled spring ready to unleash an unknown force. The proverbial delays in administration of justice were mounting with the passage of time.

Yet, he said, it was a matter of great regret that the judicial organ of the state was being treated worse than an estranged stepson by the exchequer, while the call for enlargement of the strength of the judges and even filling the pending vacancies had been ignored.

He demanded the government to fill these vacancies forthwith and emphasised the need for taking urgent steps to arrest the mounting decline in the evolving standards of civil society, in general, and the legal profession, in particular.

The nation, he said, is burdened with new legislation enacted in the form of various ordinances. The settled laws are being unsettled to suit the needs of the people at the helm of affairs. There is always an attempt to minimise the rights of the people and to increase the authority of the rulers. It is for this situation, he added, when Lord Denning observed, “A country can put up with laws which are harsh and unjust, so long as they are administered by just judges who can mitigate their harshness or alleviate their unfairness...”

Mr Razvi emphasised that justice should not be sacrificed on the alter of expeditious disposal, and the strength of the judiciary must be brought at par with its increasing workload.

The SHCBA president said the legal community was awaiting with anxiety the fulfilment of the promise of return to popular rule and for holding elections in Oct next. He said that the legal community must stand guard against any tinkering with the constitutional dispensation and that the promises made were never broken. He said that there was a need to foil the natural tendency of the rulers towards despotism and absolutism.

He deplored the killings of various lawyers, which, he said, were the logical extension of the general brutalization of civil society in which the ordinary citizen felt unsafe and insecure.

Recalling the protest of the Bar and other organizations against such killings, he said the challenge required the people to be steadfast, vocal, vigilant and united.

On the international plane, he said the distinction between a terrorist and a freedom fighter had been consciously blurred, in fact defaced, to advance the self-centred ends of the oppressor under the garb of defending civilization.

The killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine, on the pretext of pursuing a war against terrorism, must stop forthwith and rehabilitation work must take precedence over all other things, he added.

Addressing the gathering the former attorney general stressed the need for combined effort of the bar and the bench in the dispensation of justice.

He said that under Artcle 4(2) of th econstitution no action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken except in accordance with the law. He said that according to the constitution no person shall be prevented from or hindered in doing that which was not prohibited by law .

He also referred to article 3 of th constitution according to which steps were to be taken to enable Muslims of Pakistan individually and collectively to order their lives in accordance withthe fundamental principles and basic concepts of Islam.

The event was attended by former chief Jutices of Pakistan and the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court and his brother judges.