PN War College delegation calls on CJP

ISLAMABAD: An 87-member delegation of PN Staff Course, Pakistan Navy War College Lahore, comprising faculty members and course participants hailing from different countries of the world visited Supreme Court on Monday as a part of their inland study tour.
They called on Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali. During the meeting, the Chief Justice of Pakistan informed them about the functioning of Supreme Court of Pakistan as well as judicial system of the country.
The Chief Justice further said that Supreme Court is apex court of the country comprising Chief Justice and 16 judges appointed by Judicial Commission of Pakistan under Article 175A of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Discussing the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of Pakistan told the delegation that Supreme Court exercises original, appellate and review jurisdiction under article 184, 185, 186, 187 and 188 of the Constitution. Judicial powers are exercised by all judges except administrative powers like fixation of cases etc, which are exclusively exercised by the Chief Justice.
He also added that to cater the needs of litigants of remote areas, circuit/ branch registries of Supreme Court benches are constituted at provincial headquarters for speedy justice.
At the provincial level High Courts are working. There are five High Courts in Pakistan under which District Judiciary comprising District & Sessions Judges, Additional District and Sessions Judges is working. Apart from regular courts some special courts are also constituted to cater the needs of litigants that include family courts, rent controller, service tribunals, anti terrorism courts.
Talking on the issue of strength of judges he informed the delegates that there are 60 judges working in Lahore High Court, 40 in Sindh High Court, 11 in Balochistan High Court and 20 in Peshawar High Court and 7 in Islamabad. There are 13 positions are still vacant in Sindh High Court, 3 in Balochistan High Court, 4 in Peshawar High Court and 2 in Islamabad High Court which will be filled on merit.
He emphasized, “under limited resources we are trying our level best to dispose cases. It is not only our duty to dispose of cases but also dispense justice. Huge backlog of cases is a failure of number of institutions which are not fulfilling their responsibilities as per law”.
He further added that in our country, under the constitutional scheme, there are three pillars of state i.e. legislature, executive and judiciary. The state exercises its power through three components, based upon the concept of separation of power.
Later, the delegation presented souvenir to the Chief Justice of Pakistan as token of respect and gesture of goodwill. The Chief Justice of Pakistan conveyed his gratitude and extended thanks to them.