80% of cases in Pakistan, India based on lies: ex-CJP

Justice Nisar says steps taken to resolve issues of media-persons

KARACHI: Former chief justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has said the 28 principles of basic human rights are a part of the Constitution in which the most important one is the right to live, but the right to live is not just about spending life, it is about spending it with full force.

“Parliament is supreme, but cannot make any constitutional amendment which is against the basic human rights,” said the former CJP while addressing the ‘Meet the Editors’ programme organised by the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) on Sunday.



The programme was presided over by CPNE Vice President and Sindh Committee Chairman Ikram Sehgal.
On the reason behind numerous suo motu notices taken by the courts, Nisar said notices were taken due to non-submission of constitutional petitions against violation of rights of civil society members and citizens.

“Unfortunately, 80% of the cases in Pakistan and India are based on lies due to which there is an obstacle in the provision of justice to the public,” said Nisar, adding that there were 1908 procedural laws in the country which were not worth implementing in the modern times and had lost their importance.

He pointed out that in the current modern times, amendment in the Constitution was extremely important and inevitable.



He said many efforts were made to resolve the issues of the media-persons as he had their salaries released which was their basic right.
Of the 188,000 petitions in the SC Human Rights Cell, more than 80% were heard.

He said every CJ has his own modus operandi which should not be compared with that of any other judge.

“Fortunate nations have Constitutions in which the role of the institutions is clearly mentioned,” said Nisar. “We have adopted many laws of the Commonwealth nations.”



He said basic human rights was the most important principle in the Constitution which had been clearly explained by former SC judge Saleem Akhtar in the Shehla Zia case.

He said he tried to save himself from political cases, adding that out of the time he had available, he constituted different benches.
He said, “In view of the number of cases a judge receives, he has only three minutes to hear a case. Our law is 110 years old while no amendment has been made to it.

CPNE Editors Club Chairman Hamid Hussain Abidi announced an honorary membership for the former CJP.



At the end of the programme, CPNE Vice President Ikram Sehgal thanked the guests.

The programme was attended by CPNE senior editors Amir Mehmood, Hamid Hussain Abidi, Tahir Najmi, Ghulam Nabi Chandio, Maqsood Yusufi, Saeed Khawar, Arif Baloch, Abdur Rehman Mangreo, Abdul Khaliq Ali, Ahmed Iqbal Baloch, Usman Arib Sati, Jang  Group Coordinating Editor Shaheen Qureshi, Mian Tariq Javed, Bashir Ahmed Memon, Muhammad Tahir, Professor SB Hassan, Mehmood Alam Khalid, Fahad Shakir, Asad Shakir, Salman Qureshi, Muhammad Younis Mehar, Saadul Zaman, Tariq Javed, Saeed Sarbazi, Faisal Aziz, Nasir Khattak, Masood Ghori, Zain Shamshi, Fida Hussain, Colonel (retd) Sarfraz, Manza Siham, Zahida Abbasi, Haseena Jatoi, Sidra Kanwal, Hameeda Ghanghar and a large number of journalists and other people.