Enemies hatching conspiracies: CJP

CHITRAL: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar said on Saturday that enemies of the country are hatching conspiracies.

He maintained that steps would have to be taken to rid country of debt.

Underlying the need for building water reservoirs, he said that there was a dire need to construct dams.

He warned that the situation would get worse if corrective steps were not taken as the country was faced with acute shortage of water.

Addressing lawyers at the district bar room here, he said efforts were needed to pay off the country’s burgeoning foreign debt, which has slowed down its economic development.

The CJP said it was a matter of great concern that each Pakistani was in debt amounting to Rs117,000.

He said the enemies of Pakistan knew they could not defeat the country militarily so they have now resorted to other means to weaken our motherland.

Justice Saqib Nisar maintained that he did not discriminate between the bar and bench as both the branches of the judiciary worked to dispense justice to the people.

He said the legal system would paralyse if the bar and bench did not coordinate efforts to serve justice.

Expressing concern over the dilapidated condition of roads in Chitral, he said he would seek explanation from the quarters concerned as roads were an important means of communications.

He added that he had taken notice of the closure of the Lowari Tunnel for 24 hours, adding the National Highways Authority chairman had been summoned to the court to explain his position.

The chief justice said he had taken notice of the closure of Lowari Tunnel and the authorities concerned would soon brief him about it. However, he said the roads on both sides of the tunnel and elsewhere in Chitral were not even worthy of travelling on the back of mules.

The CJP said the provincial government had been given three months to meet the shortage of staff and medicines at the district headquarters hospital in Chitral.

He said testing for the procurement of medicine had been made easy to facilitate the patients and ensure the timely availability of drugs.

Justice Saqib Nisar also announced the establishment of the circuit bench and single bench of the Peshawar High Court in Chitral to facilitate the litigants.

District Bar Association President Khursheed Hussain Mughal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council’s member Abdul Wali Khan presented the charter of demands to the CJP.