PESHAWAR, Jan 26: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad has said that the Supreme Court’s judgments and directives are binding on all and should be implemented.

Speaking at the oath-taking ceremony of the new cabinet of District Bar Association, Haripur, on Thursday, the chief justice said that judgments, orders and directives issued by the Supreme Court were binding on all segments of the society, including the government. He said that the country’s survival could not be imagined without the rule of law and constitution.

According to a handout, the chief justice condemned the killing of three lawyers in Karachi on Wednesday. He also recalled the lawyer community’s movement, which paved the way for the restoration of democratic rule and judiciary.

On this occasion, he announced establishment of a digital library with the help of the USAID and UNDP, adding that the facility would provide access to latest judgments of the superior courts. He said that a proposal was under consideration for establishing mobile courts to provide justice to people at their doorstep and lower the burden on superior courts. The mobile courts, he added, would be presided over by a judge whose universal cell phone number would be accessible to the public.

Two lawyers acting as friends of the court would also travel with the mobile court(s), said the chief justice.

“After receiving a complaint from a litigant on the phone, the judge of the mobile court would drive to the site to conduct its proceedings and resolve the matter on the spot,” he said. He highlighted the significance of such courts saying that petty offences, at times, triggered heinous offices and greater tragedies. Hence, these needed to be resolved at the earliest.

The chief justice apprised the participants that seven major development schemes were being undertaken under the provincial government’s annual development programme one of which, he added, was the establishment of a judicial complex at Haripur. He said that the complex would also include a separate block for female lawyers.

He said that by 2015 all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would have a judicial complex inclusive of residence for judicial officers. He also announced that an additional sessions judge and a civil judge would be posted at Haripur soon.

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by judges of the Peshawar High Court, Abbottabad bench, including Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Khalid Mehmood and PHC’s judge Justice Azmatullah Malik apart from senior officers of the civil administration.