Taking oath: New SHC CJ determined to weed out corrupt judicial officers

Justice Faisal Arab becomes 23rd chief justice of Sindh High Court.

KARACHI: Taking oath as the 23rd chief justice of Sindh High Court on Tuesday, Faisal Arab vowed to take action against all judicial officers involved in corruption.

He was talking to the reporters after Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan administered oath at a ceremony at the high court premises. The ceremony was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, the judges of the Supreme Court, the SHC and the district courts, and other government officials.

CJ Arab was of the view that the availability of the judges is the prerequisite to dispense justice. Ten posts of judges in the high court and 220 vacancies of judicial officers in the subordinate judiciary are lying vacant, he said, adding that the process of judges' appointment is a lengthy exercise.

Practices, such as transferring judicial officers who are involved in corruption instead of taking action against them will no longer continue in the institution. "Now, action will be taken against such officers," he resolved. He added, however, that corrupt officers are fewer in number but they defame the entire institution.

Arab said judges were not supposed to control the law and order situation. "It is not the duty of the judges to patrol the roads," he said. "Their duty is to hear and decide the cases, which are brought before them by the law enforcers in courts."

He emphasised that the law enforcers must submit their proper investigation reports to the courts along with the cases against the suspects. The law enforcers have to play the preliminary role in controlling crimes and the courts' role starts at a later stage.

Since he had just assumed the office, Arab said he will look into the issue of heading the review committee formed by the Supreme Court to monitor the performance of law enforcement agencies.

Arab also promised to devise a new mechanism to deal with the issue of backlog cases in both the high court and the lower judiciary. Currently, each judge has to deal with nearly 100 cases every day while unnecessary adjournments by the lawyers further add to the sufferings of the litigants, he said.

On the issue of frequent strikes and suspension of judicial work, he said the judiciary is not a place of protests. He was of the view that the litigants should not be made to suffer because of a tragedy. He wondered why judicial work was suspended in the high court and the lower judiciary on the recent demise of a former chief justice of Pakistan even though the Supreme Court continued its routine functions. "I'm against this," he said. "Court work should not suffer."

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2015.