Fearful judges should quit judiciary: LHC CJ

LAHORE
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik Wednesday said the judges who decided matters being under pressure or by fear of any person were not entitled to be judges and should do some other work.
The chief justice expressed these views while he was addressing the lawyers at Aiwan-e-Adl on an invitation of Lahore Bar Association (LBA) to give him a welcome party for becoming the chief justice of the Lahore High Court.
The CJ said it was a time to decide today whether this judicial system had been designed for judges for withdrawing their salaries and for lawyers to enjoy all facilities then who will dispense justice to the masses.
He emphasised to think whether the judicial system was working in the same spirit and was moving on a right track for which purpose it had been designed.
He said this profession was of saints that dispensed justice to the victims, adding no cases should be lingered on and the justice should be provided to the masses on right time.
He said people often asked him about the cases filed by their ancestors but they were still pending in courts.
It is true that the civil cases of 1990 are still pending as the judicial record also verifies this fact, he added. The chief justice asked the public to provide him evidence against any judge involved in corruption and he would take strict action against him. The CJ said a judicial officer must decide cases on merit, without fearing from anyone or being under pressure.
A large number of lawyers were present on the occasion. The chief justice stated that only three percent lawyers misused their powers while other 97 per cent lawyers should stop them from doing so. He asked the lawyers to work with dedication and commitment to serve the nation.
Signal-free: Signal Free Corridor Project from Qartaba Chowk to Liberty Chowk would cause a serious threat to environment and the rules were not strictly followed, argued petitioner’s counsel Saad Rasool while concluding his arguments before a full bench of the Lahore High Court.
He said the project was launched by the LDA in gross violation of rules and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done by a government department in violation of rules was eyewash.
He said usually EIA was done in case of private party but when it came to the government project a very lenient view was taken.
LDA counsel Kh Haris would advance his arguments on Thursday (today) specially keeping in view the role of provincial and local governments in such projects.
One of the petitioners counsel Salman Akram Raja had already concluded his initial arguments. The bench had already granted stay against this project.
Petitioner Fahad Malik submitted that the government started chopping the trees in the name of project called signal free corridor. He said the act of the government would cause serious health hazards.
He submitted that the government wanted to remove the greenbelts from both sides of the road of main Boulevard Gulberg for this project. He took the plea that violating many basic human rights other than causing threat to the environment started the project. He said a total 7-kilometre corridor they were going to construct four pedestrian bridges to facilitate the vehicular traffic.
He said the area had many hospitals along the road and the government was causing hardships for patients by going with this project. He said by constructing this signal free corridor, the area would become more noisy causing problems for patients.
He said this project would cause pollution and was launched without taking no objection certificate from the department concerned.
He requested to declare the project as illegal and unconstitutional and had also requested to grant stay order against the project till final decision of the petition.
The bench would take up all petitions including the two moved by Imrana Tiwana, secretary general of Lahore Conservation Society, challenging the LDA composition should be dealt as one case.