Transparency key to progress, says LHC CJ

CJ Bhatti says efficiency of institutions being enhanced across the world by taking advantages of technology

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Monday termed transparency a prerequisite for the progress of any institution.

He was addressing a seminar on the rights of overseas Pakistanis at the Punjab Judicial Academy. The CJ also inaugurated the LHC’s redesigned website launched for making it easier for overseas Pakistanis to know about the status of their cases.

Chief Justice Bhatti said the efficiency of the institutions was being enhanced across the world by taking advantages of the advanced technology.

He made clear that the institutions only earn a good image if the public pulse is not ignored.

“Overseas Pakistanis are playing a vital role in the country’s progress and they send billions of dollars to Pakistan annually,” he pointed out.

The LHC’s Administrative Judge for the Overseas Pakistani Cell, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan, said, “The overseas Pakistanis are the sons and daughters of the soil and they cannot be ignored at any level.”

He said every overseas Pakistani has equal rights. Separate courts have been constituted to protect their rights and an Overseas Cell was also established in the LHC to resolve all issues relating to their litigations.

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He said the courts established to hear overseas Pakistanis’ cases had decided over 4,000 cases out of the total 5,000 filed between January 1, 2021 and April this year.

The LHC’s principal seat and benches decided almost all the 300 cases filed during the period.

Justice Khan it was the right of litigants to get access through modern technology every effort was being made to ensure the facilities. He said the LHC website was a part of the efforts in this regard.

Justice Jawad Hassan said Punjab was the first province that had taken initiatives for the rights of overseas Pakistanis. The LHC is the first court of Pakistan that established a cell to solve the problems of the overseas Pakistanis, he added.

He said the Constitution provides equal rights to the citizens and the overseas Pakistanis could not be deprived of their rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10^th, 2022.