The new CJP

Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa has taken over from Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, now retired, as Chief Justice of Pakistan. In his speech during a full court reference held in the honour of the outgoing CJP, Justice Khosa unfolded his to-do list that prioritises putting own house in order. The new CJP said he would ‘also’ like to build dams — the dams against undue and unnecessary delays in judicial determination of cases and frivolous litigation; and against fake witnesses and false testimonies. He said he would ‘also’ try to retire a debt — the debt of pending cases which must be decided at the earliest possible. Justice Khosa’s words can easily be traced to an announcement by his predecessor, Mian Saqib Nisar, that he was left with only two ambitions in life — to build dams and to retire the national debt. In a further break from the policy of his predecessor, Justice Khosa has made it clear that suo-motu powers of the top court will be exercised very sparingly.

Justice Khosa sees the time to restructure the judicial system and make it simple and effective. He believes the four-tier judicial hierarchy in the country should be replaced with a three-tier system consisting of the district judiciary as trial court for all civil and criminal cases, the provincial high courts as the courts of appeal in all cases, and the Supreme Court as the last resort. Justice Khosa has the will and the vision to bring revolutionary reforms in the justice system. However, no reform can be successful in isolation, and can only be achieved with the cooperation of the bench, the bar and the government.

The CJP’s call for an inter-institutional dialogue — involving the top parliamentary leadership, top judicial leadership and top executive leadership, including the military and the intelligence agencies — suggests a workable way out of the various crises the country is grappling with.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2019.

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