CJP defends invocation of suo motu sparingly

Justice Khosa says judicial activism of his predecessors has already put executive on its toes

LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa has said that there is no need for the judiciary to intervene in government affairs if the latter is performing its duties.

“If officials are already efficient; if they are already doing their job; if they are already attending to the emerging situation, then there is no need for the court to jump in,” said the CJP, who is set to retire next month.

He was addressing a ceremony at Lahore’s Central Police Office (CPO) after chairing a meeting on police reforms on Saturday.

Justice Khosa, who during his entire tenure did not take any suo motu notice unlike his predecessors, said whenever anything happens in the country which captures public attention, there is an outcry that the chief justice should take suo motu notice.

“[However] I realised that because of the activism of some of my respected seniors, departments were already on their toes and whenever any incident took place all the concerned officials would reach the spot immediately and respond to the situation. This is what the court was expected to do,” he added.

Citing his reasons for not interfering in the affairs of the executive, he said there were times when an incident would take place in the evening and a notice was taken by the court in the night.

“[In such cases] all senior officers would be running to Islamabad to appear before the Supreme Court rather than going to the place of the occurrence to oversee the situation,” he said, adding that: “I believe it was not correct.” He said the court’s intervention was only justified if officials were not responding to and tackling a situation.

“[But] now whenever an incident happens, officials, political government and departments are active. There is hardly any need for the Supreme Court to jump in at a premature stage, particularly when the Supreme Court is the court of the last resort.

The CJP said the SC could not afford to become a court of first resort or an institution of the first resort.

“Something has to mature then investigation has to take place; trial is to take place; appeal is to take place then the matter comes before the Supreme Court. If we intervene on day one, then the whole process of justice will be retarded that is not conducive for justice,” he added.

Police reforms meeting

The CJP also chaired a meeting attended by inspectors general police (IGPs) of all provinces as well as that of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B). During the meeting, he asked for improvement and revision of steps taken for performance of District Assessment Committee, regarding acquittal and release of suspects on bail.

He also asked for ensuring prompt implementation of police reforms to ensure timely decisions of cases and punishments for the accused persons. He also ordered for timely registration of FIRs according to law in police stations and take steps to improve quality of investigations.

The implementation of task assigned to the National Police Bureau director general was also discussed.

On the occasion, CJP Khosa said burden had increased due to filing of 22A and 22B applications. The IGPs presented report regarding the steps to improve police reform and investigations system.

It was noted that due to efforts of the CJP workload of filing of petitions U/S 22A and 22B CrPC in the district judiciary had been reduced of 30.2%.

From 1-1-2018 to 15-11-2018, some 237,873 petitions under section 22A and 22B were instituted while 166,056 petitions were instituted during period, showing the reduction of 30.2% of workload of filing of petitions U/S 22A and 22B CrPC, in the district judiciary.

Punjab IGP Arif Nawaz Khan informed the PRC about performance of the Police Complaint Redressal Centers and other matters, including actions taken against the delinquent police officers.