ISLAMABAD: On Tuesday, PM Imran Khan, during his speech at the groundbreaking of the Islamabad District Courts’ building, said that Pakistan has a stroke of worse luck because it has different sets of rules for the poor and rich.
The premier also talked about the rule of law, speedy justice and development, pointing out where Pakistan went wrong. He added that there was a time in the sixties when we used to see that Pakistan was moving forward by leaps and bounds, leaving behind other countries like India, but then things gradually started going downward.
Blaming the lack of rule of law in Pakistan he said, “We have been left behind due to lack of rule of law,” adding that the strong and influential segments of society consider themselves superior to law.
PM Imran Khan further said that Pervez Musharraf, the former General of the Pakistan army, had no right to disseminate the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) because it provided the politicians, political workers and bureaucrats an easy escape for withdrawing their cases filed against them.
“The biggest injustice Gen Musharraf did to the country was giving NRO,” the premier said, adding that Musharraf didn’t have a right to give NRO to the powerful because the looted money was not his but the nations.
“Only a society that upholds the rule of law is prosperous,” Prime Minister Imran Khan said.
While talking about the 2007 lawyers’ movement, and naming it a ‘historic’ struggle, he said it was a great movement and I was a part of it because it was supposed to strengthen democracy and ensuring rule of law. The premier, however, regretted that the movement could not achieve its desired results.
On the other hand, Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah, in his remarks, praised the premier for the initiative of the Islamabad District Courts’ building, which aims to facilitate judges, lawyers and litigants. He said that the district courts empowers the weak segments of society.