Scales of justice: ‘Temporary judges urged not to hear important cases’

‘People who benefited from the lawyers movement haven’t re-opened May 12 cases’.

KARACHI:

Important cases should ideally not be fixed before the ad hoc judges as they are temporarily appointed and are not supposed to be treated the same as permanent judges when it comes to perks and other benefits, said Asma Jehangir, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan on Friday. She was talking to the office bearers and members of the Malir Bar Association.

We are not against the ad hoc judges, she hastened to add, and went on to say without elucidating that “judges have to change their minds”.

Continuing her criticism of the present judiciary, she demanded the removal of what she said were “inefficient ad hoc judges”. “Able and honest judges” should be brought in instead. According to the new judicial policy, an ad hoc judge cannot be equal to a permanent judge, she said.

May 12, 2007

Referring to May 12, 2007 in Karachi, she said that “those [people] who benefitted from the movement of lawyers for an independent judiciary have failed to re-open the May 12 cases and expose the perpetrators and miscreants who killed dozens of innocent citizens on the city streets, misbehaved with women lawyers etc.” She vowed to move an application as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan before the apex court for a re-opeining of the May 12 cases. “We cannot forget the sacrifices made by members of the Karachi and Malir bar associations,” she said.

Suo motu action

The aim of the movement by lawyers has yet to be achieved as thousands of cases are pending before the apex court which is busy taking suo motu action, she said. For insignificant issues, larger benches are constituted and precious time is wasted, causing common litigants hardship, she said.

She was also critical of the state of affairs at the National Judicial Academy which she said should be properly used to train newcomers into the field of law.

Jehangir was criticial of new appointments to the judiciary and said that not a single lawyer from the Lahore bar was chosen as a judge. The bench and the bar must work in unison to provide justice to the people, she said, maintaining that lawyers strongly believe in an independent judiciary and never compromise on this score. Yasin Khan Azad of the Pakistan Bar Council, Naeem Qureshi of the Sindh Bar Council and a number of senior lawyers besides members of the Malir Bar Association attended.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2011.