Gone are days when judges took position against one another: CJP

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi Monday said gone were the days when judges took position against each other.

During an informal meeting with Press Association of the Supreme Court (PAS), he said: “We all judges in the Supreme Court are like brothers and, with the passage of time, everything will be settled.” He said the judiciary faced tough time during the past three, four years due to heavy load of cases, but situation was improving gradually now.

The CJP said he did not impose his views on his fellow judge, and he believed that all judges should move forward with a collective wisdom. He said every judge of the Supreme Court is independent, and he deals with cases in his own style. Criticism of judicial decisions should be made, but it should be constructive in nature, the CJP added.

He outlined his vision for a reformed judiciary, saying that there would be no direct interference in the functions of lower judiciary as well as authority of high courts, as he had great respect for high courts.

The chief justice saidvarious steps had been taken for bringing reforms in the Supreme Court including establishment of a mechanism for fixing the cases for early hearing to provide speedy justice to the litigants.

The PAS delegation, led by its President Mian Aqeel Afzal, called on the CJP here on Monday. The chief justice told the delegation that special benches of the apex court had been constituted for hearing cases related to electoral disputes as well as criminal and tax-related matters.

“It’s my vision that when a case is filed in the apex court, litigants should be asked to provide their email and whatsapp address so that they could get all orders right from the beginning to the conclusion of the cases,” the CJP said. He further said that during his recent visit to different jails, the inmates made a complaint regarding long delays by the apex court in pronouncement of the judgments.

The CJP said the issue of missing persons is also very glaring, adding that he was shocked to hear about these cases during his visit to Gawadr and Quetta. He promised that he would try his best to take up those cases and their early disposal as well. He said measures were underway to for providing free legal aid to deserving litigants in the district judiciary.

Similarly, the CJP said proceedings in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on the complaints filed against the judges was in progress. He said senior judge of the apex court Justice Mansoor Ali Shah had done lots of work on Alternative Disputes Resolution (ADR), adding that retired judges would be imparted training on ADR in Federal Judicial Academy, Islamabad.