HYDERABAD, Oct 19 Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has said that had the Supreme Court been working (independently) the FIR of Karsaz bombing would have been lodged on Oct 18 and the culprits arrested.

Addressing lawyers in the civil courts premises on Saturday night, the deposed justice expressed concern over present state of affairs and said people were greatly perturbed over prevailing situation in the country.

He said that an independent judiciary guarantees social and economic development because foreign investors need protection to their rights.

He hoped that lawyers would remain united and achieve their cherished goal. People wanted an independent judiciary, which could hold the tyrant accountable and deliver justice to the weak and the needy, he said.

He underlined the need for a stronger and sovereign judicial system in the country and said that the slogan of independent judiciary was not lawyers-specific because 160 million people had joined their voice to the slogan.

“Judiciary doesn't mean that a man is working there. But it should reflect people's trust (and assure them) that they could approach it to seek protection. Judges should remain fearless and brave and ready to pay any price for delivering justice in accordance with the Constitution and law,” he remarked.

“When judges deliver verdicts without fear, it will make the country's frontiers safe and help wipe out terrorism. The country faced multifarious crisis in the absence of an independent judiciary,” he said.

Justice Chaudhry quoted a famous saying of Winston Churchill that “if judiciary is working (independently) then there's nothing to worry about” and said that it could be applied to Pakistan's case as well.

He said that good governance was linked with efficient working of the three pillars of the state and no one could expect relief coming from the government unless all the pillars worked in an efficient manner.

SCBA president Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said that people should seize the opportunity as Napoleon had once said that no army could fight an idea whose time had come. “Pakistan has no time and we have to save it. Terrorism is to be stamped out and economy is to be improved,” he said.

He urged lawyers to vote for Ali Ahmed Kurd who was contesting for the office of SCBA president and said it was a defining movement for lawyers' struggle.

Munir Malik said that revolutions had to go through a process of purification to drain out bad and diseased blood because struggles were always waged with clean blood. “This is not a movement for jobs, it's based on principles and has no grey areas,” he said.

“A struggle should not be judged by the number of rallies but from the fact that how many minds it has been able to change,” he said. A similar struggle had been launched in the UK 400 years ago when the then chief justice had challenged King James, who used to say that he was the law while the former told him that no one was above the law, he said.

The secretary of National Coordination Council (NCC) and president of Rawalpindi Bar Association, Sardar Asmatullah, said that it was due to lawyers' struggle that some deposed judges had been reinstated.

The president of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Rasheed A. Razvi urged all the high court and district bar associations to ban entry of Farooq Naek and Attorney General Lateef Khosa and said that membership of black sheep should be cancelled once and for all.

Awami Tehrik chief Rasool Bux Palijo, vice-chairman of Sindh Bar Council Muzaffar Leghari, Karachi Bar Association president Mehmoodul Hassan, High Court Bar Association president Abdul Sattar Kazi, Balochistan Bar Council president Baz Mohammad Kakar, Hamid Khan, Mehmood Ashraf of Multan Bar and Anwar Kamal, president Lahore High Court Bar Association, also spoke on the occasion.