Conference urges complete independence of judiciary
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD Feb 11: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Sunday said terrorism, street crimes, corruption, negligence and misuse of authority were eating into the vitals of society and asked for realistic reform strategies for focusing more on welfare and security of the citizens.
Speaking at the concluding session of a three-day National Judicial Conference held here at the Supreme Court Building, the chief justice called for efforts to improve access of women to justice and added that female litigants faced host of problems in the course of litigation.
“Starting from engaging a lawyer, to attendance in the court, to security and facilities in the court premises, to execution of the orders of the court and confinement in jails are the areas in which the female litigants are at obvious disadvantages,” the chief justice observed.
He said that an independent judiciary was an essential ingredient of democracy, stability in the system, peace and tranquillity. The maintenance of law and order also depends on the interpretation of the Constitution and legislative instruments by superior courts.
The conference also adopted a six-point declaration, asking for steps for complete independence of the judiciary instead of depending on the executive for its administrative and financial needs.
The declaration is based on the recommendations presented by jurists and scholars after day-long deliberations on Saturday. These recommendations will be converted into an actionable National Delay Reduction Programme through the National Judicial Policy Making Committee.
The declaration suggested that professional standards should be followed in appointing judges as prescribed in the Constitution, while the judges should be prohibited from earning an income through commerce to maintain the highest standards of decorum.
For safeguarding judicial independence, a judge should have complete sense of protection, and in case he fails to deliver satisfactory decisions to the liking of the executive, he should not be sacked.
The terms of office should be fixed in a way that they can give their honest opinion in cases in which any other branch of the state is a party.
On public interest litigations, the declaration asked for urgent steps for mass awareness campaigns and added that courts should ensure widespread publicity of public interest litigation through media and other sources. Likewise, the bench and the bar should demonstrate greater understanding and cooperation for taking up public interest litigation.
Outlining recommendations on alternate dispute resolution (ARD), the chief justice said the present infrastructure of judiciary should be strengthened to facilitate the parties to use good offices of the existing courts for ADR.
Necessary amendments should also be there to make ADR binding on litigant parties, while the court should facilitate them in the process.
The existing Local Government System of Anjuman-e-Musalihat, the declaration said, should also be made easily accessible, gender sensitive and genuinely participatory without changing the existing nomenclatures so that people at large can comfortably identify with these being indigenous instruments of dispensation of justice.
On quality of judgments, the declaration said skill and knowledge of judges should be enhanced for producing well-written and succinct judgments based on thorough analysis of facts and law.
Research facilities along with adequately resourced law libraries, including electronic databases, should be provided to the judges in writing judgments so that a reader is able to acquire knowledge of principles and application of law.
The declaration called for discouraging frivolous litigations through all available means, including imposition of costs.
On standard of legal education, the declaration asked for overhauling syllabus and curriculum needs to help aspiring lawyers in their role of problem solvers, arbitrators, counsellors, negotiators and administrators. The syllabi should also include subjects like human rights, gender issues, ADR, WTO and globalisation.
It also asked the Higher Education Commission to undertake responsibility of establishing public law universities for higher education to improve legal education in the country.
Source: Economic and Business Review; The Daily Dawn. Avialable online: http://www.dawn.com/2007/02/12/top1.htm
Governments and development agencies have devoted many years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing democratic governance in countries around the world. The idea of creating democracies is still the primary driver of many governance improvement agendas. Clearly, democratic systems often bring with them improvements in governance and economic development, but simply putting a democracy into place is not enough.
:: Pakistani Economist :: 