LAHORE, Sept 18: Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court has said the decisions of the election tribunals can be criticized (implying that it was not tantamount to contempt of court).
He made the observation when a reporter drew his attention towards an advertisement titled Sach kiya hai (What is the truth) highlighting the contradiction between the decisions of the returning officer and the LHC appellate tribunal in respect of the loan default of Shahbaz Sharif and Kalsoom Nawaz after his address to the Lahore High Court Bar.
The chief justice said nobody could be barred from criticizing the decisions of the appellate tribunals. Appeals could, however, also be filed against the decisions of the tribunals.
He said the tribunals had been constituted by the Chief Election Commissioner before his elevation as the chief justice. The CJ had nothing to do with the constitution of the tribunals, he added.
Earlier, talking to the Bar members, the chief justice said he and his colleagues would discharge their duties strictly within their constitutional framework and would not give anyone any chance to complain because they were accountable to Allah.
He said he was accessible and the Bar members could bring their problems to his notice.
The CJ said the confidence reposed in him by the Bar, his friends and colleagues was his asset and would keep him steadfast at every step.
He said the petitions in respect of violation of rights would be given special attention. The Bar was an integral part of the bench and he would take it along at every step, he added.
Justice Chaudhry said he planned to make a number of changes in the procedure for the filing of cases and access to the record.
He said computerization of the procedures would be completed by the end of the year to enable the Bar members to check the cause lists on the monitor in the Bar room. They would also be provided the facility to read and download the interim and final orders of different judges from the LHC web site on the internet.
He said he had been a member of the Bar and considered it his home. The Bar should prepare a master plan for the improvement and expansion of facilities and he would get it implemented from the available resources. It would not have to look towards anyone else for improvement in the airconditioning facilities and construction of a new auditorium.
Welcoming the chief justice, Lahore High Court Bar Association president Chaudhry Muzammil Khan said his appointment had been made on merit and the Bar reposed its confidence in him. The appointment of the new LHC registrar and all other postings ordered by the new chief justice had been made on merit, he added.
He said the father of the new CJ was an active worker of the Pakistan Movement and had been elected the Member of the Legislative Assembly from Jhelum after independence. His elder brother Chaudhry Altaf Husain was the Punjab governor while his younger brother had been elected the district Nazim.
Drawing the CJ’s attention towards the problems of the Bar, he said the LHCBA had over 7,000 members but the present auditorium could accommodate only 300. Construction of a spacious auditorium was urgently required. The airconditioning system in different halls also required improvement.
He said he had visited the Indian Supreme Court in 1992 and found the cause lists on display on a monitor in the Bar room. Similar facility should be provided in the Bar room here.
He said the CJ should also help the Bar in improving its library.
Mr Khan said “an atmosphere of suffocation” existed in the Bar during the tenure of outgoing CJ who did not even bother to wish him on his election as the LHCBA president. He said the Bar would support every action of the CJ taken on merit.
LHCBA secretary general Shahid Mahmood Bhatti said the new CJ had assumed the office at a time when the judiciary was working under great pressure as the rulers wanted it to obey its dictates. The governor was pressing politicians to join the PML-QA.
He said the bar was completely united and wished the new CJ to support the people in the transfer of power to the civil society and discharge his duties to stop those who had developed the habit to seize power after every decade.
He said presently every petitioner wanted his case against the police to be fixed before Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif. Others wanted their cases to be fixed before Justice M. Javed Buttar for justice.
He said the situation required to be changed so that the petitioners were not worried in the event of their cases being fixed before any particular judge.