Daily Times

Sir: The outgoing Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court has pointed to many a lacuna that exists in our judicial system, where procedures, rules, regulations and practices conceived in the 19th century dominate and the pace of work schedule has failed to adapt itself to the crying needs of the 21st century. Months elapse before an authentic copy of a judgement is given to victims of injustices. The magnitude and complexity of problems has arisen along with an ever expanding population growth. The mindset of those entrusted with power to decide the fate of people seeking justice has failed to synchronise with the demands of the time. The propensity of injustices that an archaic tribal-feudal society perpetuates, being unwilling to hold itself accountable before the laws of natural justice and the rights of individuals given to them under the constitution, is rife. When justice, established under law, is denied to men and women based on technicalities advocated by highly paid branded lawyers, the credibility of the judicial system and expectations from it, raised by the movement for the restoration of the judiciary suffer a blow.

We live in the 21st century yet a master-slave concept survives in a country that calls itself democratic and Islamic. For an ordinary citizen seeking justice but with limited resources to fight a long battle, it is shocking to find that a lesser settlement offered to him before a judge of a high court does not have the sanctity of a judicial order. If its implementation is not done, than the court does not consider it to be a contempt of court. Instead of giving justice based on fundamental rights and judgments of the Supreme Court, even senior citizens of this country are denied emoluments due to them by state-owned corporations, abusing their powers of discretion, and continuing to deny them although they have expressly promised to pay all outstanding dues. On paper, these senior citizens can seek justice by going to the lower courts again, where by the time justice may be given to them, in most probability they would be six feet under the ground. The present Chief Justice of Pakistan has himself passed judgements ordering that those laid off on mandatory retirement schemes on the whims of a management in violation of Last In First Out principle must be paid all that is due to them as if they were in service till their age of retirement, but some courts fail to follow suit.

MALIK T ALI

Lahore