ISLAMABAD: Termed the rule of law a vital organ of a civilised society, the prime minister said his government will provide improved working conditions to the judiciary to help it ensure speedy dispensation of justice to the public.
Addressing the foundation stone laying ceremony of a judicial complex in Islamabad, Imran Khan said the project will facilitate all stakeholders: the bench, bar and petitioners.
The complex, a collaboration between Capital Development Authority and Frontier Works Organization, is being constructed in Sector G-11/4 at a land measuring 195,000 square feet and will be completed in six months.
For the last four decades, the district courts are housed in a rented structure and provide insufficient facilities to the stakeholders.
Terming dispensation of justice especially to the weaker segments a priority, the prime minister said he had also named his political party on the same title and vision.
Imran said he was proud to be part of the “epic democratic struggle” of the 2007 Lawyers Movement against a military dictator, however, regretted that the targets could not be achieved.
He mentioned the political elite in the country continued to seek a preferential treatment and considered itself above the law.
“A country can never progress where two separate streams of justice prevail for the powerful and the weaker ones,” he said.
He pointed out that lingering litigation, particularly in cases of land grabbing, was a big hurdle in the way to investment by overseas Pakistanis.
The prime minister lauded Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah for announcing landmark verdicts in the interest of society and environmental protection.
He also appreciated the CDA and FWO for starkly bringing down the cost of PC-1 to Rs1.5 billion from Rs6.5 billion.
Justice Minallah said access to inexpensive and speedy justice was the basic right of the public, which could be possible only “if all institutions continued to work within their ambits”.
“Supremacy of the law and the Constitution, and abiding by the oath of one’s office is a guarantee to justice and ensures the rights of the nation,” he said.
He said the goals of the lawyers’ movement were yet to be accomplished as its leaders had promised the people a journey towards “a state like a mother’, that protected and cared for its citizens.
However, he stressed that such a struggle could not be limited to the judiciary alone.
“Judiciary is a unit in the judicial system […] a society where truthful witnesses become extinct and the committing of crime is overlooked, even a strong judicial system loses its authority,” he observed.
The judge said the efficiency of a judicial system relied on good leadership and proper prosecution by the investigating departments.
He said district courts act as the guarantor to upholding the rule of law, however, the extension of facilities to the judicial setup and the public was ignored since the establishment of Islamabad as a capital.
“The day is of utmost importance because for the first time a government has realised that people are the real stakeholders of the justice system,” he said.
Earlier, CDA chairman Amer Ali Ahmed gave a briefing to the prime minister on the features of the judicial complex. Minister for Law and Justice Barrister Farogh Naseem, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed and others were present.
The multi-storey building will comprise four blocks of 93 district courts, an administrative block, a lockup for prisoners, a Nadra verification room, and separate waiting areas for lawyers and petitioners.
