LAHORE, Oct 11 Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said that National Judicial Policy was not a mere slogan but it would be implemented strictly to deliver justice to the people at their doorstep.

Addressing lawyers at a ceremony arranged by the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Saturday, the CJP said that we were not in a position to commit more mistakes as already much loss had been done by the interference of organs of state into the affairs of each other.

He said conspiracies against independent judiciary were still going on and the lawyers should be more vigilant to cope with anti-judiciary elements.

He said if all organs of state adopted preventive measures and acted within their constitutional domain, the system would remain on the track and no usurper would dare derailing it again.

He said that parliament was in place and functioning smoothly adding that parliamentary system and democracy would remain intact and no one would harm the system as long as all three organs of the state acted in harmony.

About the July 31 judgment, the CJP said it was a step ahead of Asma Jilani's Case as the present 14-member bench of the SC did not condone even the slightest part of unconstitutional acts of Nov3, 2007.

He said the Supreme Court had referred the matter of scrutinising the ordinances issued prior to Dec 15, 2007, to the parliament as it was proper forum to decide the fate of any piece of legislation.

He said the Supreme Court in the July 31 judgment did not follow the old practice of condoning unconstitutional acts under exigencies but it annulled the remains of dictatorship which was repugnant to the Constitution. This decision, he said, was now a public property and the lawyers had to protect the same.

The CJP lauded the struggle of lawyers for the restoration of judiciary and urged them to continue their struggle for the supremacy of the 1973 Constitution. He also lauded the role of the media and civil society throughout the movement.

Earlier, Lahore High Court chief justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, LHCBA president Justice Nasira Iqbal (retired), LHCBA secretary Muqtadir Akhter Shabbir and Lahore Bar Association president Rana Zia Abdul Rehman also spoke. Chief justices of all the provincial high courts and sitting and retired judges of superior courts also attended the ceremony.