ANY Pakistani would be greatly moved by the speech delivered by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, at the Judicial Academy in Lahore on Feb 20, carried live by almost all news TV channels. The CJP appeared most convincing and most committed to his responsibilities and the responsibilities of the entire judicial setup.

He did not sound like a sate functionary bedecked with formalities and bureaucratic norms, but sounded like a corporate head who meant business, and who wanted to see the bottom line, the net result.

It is obvious he wants to deliver, and he wants all judges from the junior level to higher ones in his team to do the same, which is relieving, redeeming and reassuring. We can now only hope that this attitude and approach of the Chief Judge does not remain only and wholly his, but takes the shape of an institute instead.

What was particularly notable in the CJP's speech was his stance that all judges from the district/session courts to the Supreme Court belong to the same family, and there should not be any lack of communication and interaction between them. Anybody having any idea of bureaucratic hierarchy in our government and judicial setup would understand how revolutionary an action that is going to be.

This openness, interactions and moving of ideas along the hierarchy line would surely place checks on corruption, besides increasing efficiency and objectivity.

I hope the same openness is talked about and deployed in all other government machineries.

The CJP's most important advice to his fellow judges was to take ownership of the cases they are hearing and their active follow-up for reaching the conclusion at the earliest. He also advised the high court chief judges to take continuous and regular cognisance of cases pending in their domains. This, along with the computerisation of pending cases, as he suggested, is certainly going to take care of the whimsical and manipulative authorities of the administrative staff of the courts.

If this happens, it would revolutionise the entire judicial system in Pakistan.

So instead of spending time debating whether judges have become politicised or not, whether they are overstepping their judicial responsibilities and stepping into administrative jobs or not, and whether judges are speaking through their judgments or otherwise, the media and intellectuals should spend time seeing whether the guidelines given by the CJP are implemented and followed or not. It will not be a piece of cake.

SYED SAYEF HUSSAIN
Karachi