Judges of the district judiciary should fearlessly implement and enforce applicable international and national laws to provide a healthy environment to the people of Pakistan.
This was stated by Supreme Court Justice Dost Muhammad Khan while expressing his views at the certificate awarding ceremony on the conclusion of a one-week course on “Orientation of New Laws” for additional district and sessions judges from all over the country at the Federal Judicial Academy on Saturday.
Khan, who was previously the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, said, “The deplorable state of the environment in our country requires the judiciary, as the guardian of the rule of law, to implement all existing environmental and municipal laws in letter and spirit to keep our country neat and clean.”
Unfortunately, he said, a lack of exposure to environmental law by members of the judiciary may hinder its implementation, which is why appropriate training of judges is required in the field.
Lamenting the attitude of people towards the environment, Khan said, “The attitude of individuals and that of society as a whole towards protecting the environment is really painful. Our legislature is under an obligation to legislate so the right to a healthy environment is incorporated in our constitution as one of the fundamental human rights.”
During his address, the judge also dwelt at length on various subjects of the law and asked district judges to enhance their proficiency in these areas to dispense expeditious justice to litigants.
“A judge should always be honest and with unflinching will power,” he said.
The academy’s director general, Dr Faqir Hussain, in his welcome speech highlighted the contributions of the former provincial chief justice, and said “We believe that a judge is judged not only by the quality of his or her judgments, but also by the quality and purity of character.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2014.
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implemenation of environmental law is an inevitable. without environmental security v may not b able to defend our frontiers. water, soil, air and noise pollution costs more than 365 billion rupees anually .indoor air pollution is one of the major cause of respiratory illness and cardiac diaseases. so by implementing environmental laws in letr nd sprit v can save billions of rupees with protecting lives of many. the most important thing to do is protection of forests. the deploreable situation here in gb is alarming.dforestation with in gilgit district is very alarming nd prcursor of climate change at regionl level.