No institution allowed to overstep limits, says CJ

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, on Monday made it clear that no institution would be allowed to operate outside of its constitutional limits.
Addressing a ceremony held here to mark the new judicial year, the CJP said democracy was based on distribution of powers among institutions and that ensured balance. “There should be a democratic structure under which power is with the elected representatives of people,” he added.
He further said according to Islamic interpretation, the principles of democracy, tolerance and social justice should be followed.
Justice Jamali also regretted slow decisions in cases adding that low-income groups had to wait for a long time for justice.
He said the judiciary would try to ensure speedy disposal of cases and vowed to continue efforts for the rule of law.
The CJP said it would be his utmost effort to ensure provision of speedy and inexpensive justice to litigants. — INP
Sohail Khan adds: The chief justice vowed to continue efforts for ensuring speedy justice to masses in an impartial manner besides upholding the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution.
He expressed his resolve to make the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) effective for hearing complaints against the superior courts, which are being filed under Article 209 of the Constitution.
The chief justice said the policy of self-accountability should not be one-sided and the bar councils should make their disciplinary committees effective and decide all complaints pending against lawyers.
He said the decisions passed by the apex court last year will greatly help eradicate social evils in the coming times.
In this respect, he referred to the verdicts delivered by the apex court on the 18th and 21st amendments which he said were according to the prevailing situation of the country as well as in the best interests of the public.
The chief justice said the said verdict also explained the limits of parliament as well as jurisdiction of the apex court.
He said the Constitution had already divided powers among the state institutions. He said the General Election 2013 Inquiry Commission had also proposed some recommendations as per the law and Constitution.
Justice Jamali said in September 2015, there were approximately 26,000 pending cases with the apex court and the judges had made every possible effort for reducing pendency. He said judges even chose to work during vacations and disposed of around 15,000 cases but due to some unfavorable reasons other cases could not be decided.
One of the reasons for the delay in disposal of pending cases was the sit-in in front of the apex court building due to which litigants and lawyers could not come to the court for months and as a result cases remained pending.
The second reason for the pendency related to constitutional amendments for which a full court was constituted that heard the petitions for some months that ultimately affected the hearing of other cases while the bench constituted for hearing the General Election 2013 Inquiry was also one of the reasons for the pendency of other cases.
“If all these problems had not been there, the volume of pendency could have been decreased,” the chief justice said.
He further said last year in September 2014, the pendency of cases was around 24,000, adding that from September 2014 to August 2015, some 17,000 cases were initiated in the apex court and around 600 cases were revived but at the same time some 15,000 cases were disposed of by the apex court.