Lahore Bar Association (LBA) representatives are expected to meet Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry today (Monday) to discuss with him the judicial policy, which according to them, is a hurdle in the dispensation of justice.
According to the National Judicial Policy, all murder cases filed in or before 2008 must be decided by December 31, 2012.
LBA President Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali said that the judicial policy was of no use if justice was not dispensed to the needy. He said cases should be decided early but not so early that court judgments became a source of mockery.
He said if judges only decided cases filed till 2008, who would decide cases submitted in 2012? He said that the judicial policy was causing work overload rather than helping in the dispensation of justice. He said that if a judge decided a case in light of the judicial policy deadline (December 31, 2012), there would be a pressure which would affect his efficiency. He said that several aspects of cases would be ignored owing to hurriedness.
He said that the LBA representatives would discuss several issues with the CJP but their main objective was to convey a request to reconsider the judicial policy.
General Secretary Asad Abbas Zaidi said that there should be good judgments rather than early disposal of cases. He said that a judge could be declared a good employee by following the judicial policy, but could not be a good judge as good judgments required a good judicial officer. He said that the judicial policy was one of the hurdles in the dispensation of justice to the common man.
He said that lawyers had reservations over the day-by-day proceedings of the oldest cases. He said lawyers claimed that they were unduly forced to get recorded statements of litigants in courts. He said that it was difficult to decide murder cases under a deadline.
The delegation likely to meet the CJP consists of the LBA president, the general secretary, Vice President Rana Javed Bashir and Jawad Akbar Gill.
The oldest case in the district and sessions courts dates back to 1985, two cases to 1999, two to 2000, one to 2001, three to 2002, seven to 2003, 19 to 2004, 37 to 2005, 53 to 2006, 75 to 2007 and 106 to 2008.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2012.
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. We can not sacrifice justice itself for the sake of efficiency. We should rather remove the obsacles in he way of quick dispensation of justice to he clients. We must supervise theprosecution and give deadlines to completely present the challan, and there after monior the progress of the case and cut the unneccessary slack and delay. he Police , the prosecution and lawyers, including clients be made part of te monitoring process. Thereview system be inroduced. Cases fixaion should done properly and expedie accordingly. Much is desired to make it a transparent,fair, free neutral and just system. eed a concrete and practical judicial policy to address hetime constraints and delays che dspensatiom pf justice.Present policy hs ve made her Judiciaal system a movkery of justice. vide its input on all issues to reform thepolicThe lawyer communi have the main responsibility to provide thevinput regarding all these matters. The judicial policy ten can be amended accordingly.
Sincerely, Javaid Bashir Attorney at law Nashua ,NH ,USA