LAHORE: President Ayub Khan declared here today [Feb 17] that it had always been the policy of his Government to maintain the rule of law in the country and the objective, he believed, could be achieved through an impartial judiciary.

Inaugurating the centenary celebrations of the West Pakistan High Court, the President recalled that even during Martial Law there was no time, then or subsequently, when the Courts in Pakistan ceased to function.

Addressing the biggest-ever gathering of foreign and Pakistani jurists, lawyers, and prominent citizens, President Ayub said, “We were determined to keep the rule of law in our administrative functioning, and the objects of the Martial Law were first to eradicate the evils which had crept into the body politic by long years of misrule, and second to introduce various reforms.”

“No doubt, the usual connotation of Martial Law is that the operation of ordinary law is ruled out” but, he said, in our case the Martial Law was not meant to be a substitution of the rule of law with arbitrariness.

Talking of the principles underlying the term “Rule of Law” the President said it was not enough that some law should by administered in the country, the most important thing was that the people should have a deep respect for the law of the land.

Listing the ways of achieving the objective he said it needed existence of independent judges who must continue to dispense justice with ability and impartiality keeping in view the well-favoured maxim “Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done”.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2017