Priorities: CJ says regaining public trust foremost goal of judiciary

Effective coordination between bar and bench crucial, Ahsan says

BAHAWALPUR: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Ijazul Ahsan said on Thursday that restoring people’s trust in the nation’s judicial system was the foremost purpose of the judiciary and lawyers.

Ahsan made the remarks while addressing the Bahawalpur High Court Bar Association. He said this made effective coordination between the bar and the bench crucial. Ahsan said while a relationship of mutual respect and regard existed between the bar and the bench, more needed to be done to strengthen the relationship to ensure the provision of justice to the people.

The chief justice said the bar and the bench were akin to two sides of the same coin. He said their foremost purpose was to provide justice. Ahsan said little variance among them could compromise the people’s trust.

While the number of lawyers had increased exponentially, he said, there was a disparity among distribution of cases. Ahsan said 80 per cent of serious cases tended to go to merely 20 per cent of lawyers. He said diligent young lawyers should also vie to obtain such cases by demonstrating their professional skills.

The chief justice said lawyers should singularly focus on their career. He said a divisional bench would be constituted to deal with long-pending cases. Ahsan said new judges would be deputed to the LHC Bahawalpur Bench. Following in the best of precedent, he said, the bench had been playing a pivotal role in the ensuring the provision of justice to the people.

He also announced a gift of books for the city’s bar library.

Earlier, Bahawalpur Bar Association president Sardar Khair Muhammad Bhudera said the bar was composed of gifted lawyers who had been striving to ensure that the law was enforced. He said the bar had repudiated old customs and embraced new traditions. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2016.