Daily Times

Sir: Regretfully, the recent lawyers’ agitation and public discourse on a free judiciary overlooks the fundamental question of recruitment, training, and capacities of judges in a modern society, in particular in Pakistan. There is an underlying assumption in the argument by one side that the pre-PCO judiciary was a pristine and infallible symbol of free and fair justice. Without going into the merits of this assumption, it is argued that competence and legal knowledge alone are insufficient to make one a “great” judge unless these are supported by strong professional and life experiences and emotional intelligence which will bring to the institution experience, wisdom, maturity, social-issues-awareness and open minds.

In the established democracies, judicial appointments have stringent pre-requisites and the appointees are often known “authorities” in constitutional and public laws and possess strong credentials as practitioners or academics at premier law schools of the world, whereas in Pakistan it is unfortunately mostly on-the-job learning. I will suggest to the legal community to develop a curriculum and training plan and a service structure whereby judicial and law officers are trained at positions of gradually increasing responsibilities for future constitutional positions. And while the PCO is still in force, may I also propose to a) create a Federal Constitutional Court, on the German model, with an exclusive jurisdiction on all constitutional matters, b) make all judicial appointments subject to ratification by a Senate and House Joint Committee on Law and Justice, and c) if possible, also make all judicial appointments subject to clearance of psychological and medical examinations.
Ironically, if the lower judiciary appointed in the PCS (Judicial) service and the civil servants and army officers could be subjected to gruelling pre-recruitment psychological and other tests, there is little justification in exempting those who would be entrusted with highly stressful and sensitive cases that directly impact our lives from any kind of pre-recruitment psychological screening or public oversight. This will ensure that the judges appointed are not just intellectually sound and physically healthy, but also show personal maturity and emotional and spiritual stability. Note that if we ignore the pre-recruitment standards and subsequent training of the judges, then any concept of judges being irremovable will be good in the books but will remain seriously flawed in practice!
DR M ASLAM
Canada