‘Fair decisions key to foreign investment’

Justice Saeed inaugurates bar room at Banking Court.

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Shaikh Azmat Saeed stressed the importance of fair and quick judgements in business cases on Monday, saying that foreign investment in Pakistan depends on it.

“Foreign investors will not invest in Pakistan if decisions relating to business disputes are delayed in the courts,” said the chief justice in a speech to lawyers and judges after inaugurating a bar room at the Banking Court.

Justice Saeed said that the Banking Court was more important than the Sessions Court. “Foreign investors, before investing in Pakistan, think a hundred times about whether they would get justice if disputes occurred with banks or with others,” he said.

He said Pakistan could only progress if the economy progressed, and that in turn depended on a court system that made decisions on merit and without delay. He urged lawyers and judges to strengthen the system. He said that the subordinate courts were short of judges. He said that he had pinned his hopes on the young lawyers of Pakistan.

Lahore Bar Association President Shehzad Hassan Shaikh said that his predecessors had always prioritised issues at the sessions, civil and district courts at the cost of the Model Town and Cantt courts, but the current bar executive was trying to improve the situation at the latter two courts. He asked the chief justice to raise the salaries of subordinate court staff.

Senior judge Malik Azharul Haq Awan and LBA General Secretary Ferhad Ali Shah were also present on the occasion.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2011.