Injustice compels people to take the law into their own hands and challenge the government’s writ, so society cannot survive without justice, said Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Saturday.
“If the people are not treated equally before the law, they feel aggrieved and tend to take the law into their own hands, which ultimately proves fatal for the whole society and becomes a challenge for the maintenance of law and order [and] in establishing the writ of the government,” said the chief justice in his speech at an international convention on ‘Fair trial (prospects and implementation)’, organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association at a local hotel.
He said that Islam had greatly stressed the importance of justice. The Holy Quran says: “God commands justice and fair dealing…”, as well as, “… when you judge between people, judge with justice.”
He said the right to a fair trial was recognised by all countries which respected the rule of law and was defined in regional and international instruments relating to human rights. The right was introduced into the Constitution in the form of Article 10-A, via the Eighteenth Amendment, but had already been recognised by the superior courts through various rulings, he said. For example, in Sharaf Faridi vs The Federation of Pakistan, in which the court observed that the right of “access to justice” was an inviolable right enshrined in Article 9 of the Constitution, and that it was a vital component of the doctrine of due process.
The right to access to justice includes the right to be treated according to the law, the right to have a fair and proper trial, and the right to have an impartial court or tribunal, the chief justice said. This right was already being recognised by judges before its insertion in the Constitution, he said.
Justice Chaudhry said that the Investigation for Fair Trial Act of 2013 had been introduced to prevent law enforcement and intelligence agencies from using their powers arbitrarily and to regulate their powers under executive and judicial oversight.
He said the National Judicial Policy had been formulated in consultation with all stakeholders in order to improve the system of administration of justice. The policy’s main aim was to consolidate and strengthen judicial independence, enabling the judiciary to decide cases fairly and impartially.
Lahore High Court
Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court said that many institutions in Pakistan did not work with honesty, forcing people to approach the courts to get justice. He said that people visited police stations to lodge cases, but the police often failed to attend to them, so they were forced to go to the courts. Judges at the lower courts, he said, were busy deciding older cases.
He urged lawyers not to go on strike, saying each day they spent on strike forced delays in thousands of cases.
Other Supreme Court of Pakistan judges, the chief justices of Supreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the High Courts and the Federal Shariat Court, the chief judges of the Gilgit-Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court and Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court, representatives of the Pakistan Bar Council and other bar associations, and delegates from foreign countries also attended the convention.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2013.