No deviation from the Constitution, says CJP

CJ says there would be no issues if legal fraternity and judiciary concentrated on implementing the rule of law.

KARACHI:

There will be no deviation from the Constitution of Pakistan, and the country will see no rule beyond its ambit, said Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while addressing the oath-taking ceremony of the Karachi Bar Associations’ (KBA) managing committee.

There would be no issues if the legal fraternity and the judiciary concentrated on implementing the rule of law, he said, adding that the judiciary itself is responsible for defending the Constitution.

“The new code of conduct for the judges of the superior judiciary now ensures that judges will not accept, or be subdued by, any supra-constitutional act by any person or authority,” Justice Chaudhry said.

Terming the backlog of cases a chronic and significant problem, he said 90 per cent of the pending cases are at district judicial level while the remaining 10 per cent were at high court and the Supreme Court level.

While India has over 30 million pending cases in its courts, they are less than Pakistan’s when compared on a per capita basis, he added.

When queried by the honorary secretary KBA, Haider Imam Rizvi, on the discrepancy in salaries of the lower staff and judges of the lower judiciary in various provinces, the CJP said the discrepancy was disheartening.

The judicial allowance in Punjab is three times the basic pay while it is equivalent to just one basic pay in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa, the CJP said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2011.