If rulers do their job right, courts won’t interfere: CJP

LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khosa has said if rulers do their job right, courts will not feel the need to interfere, as the Supreme Court is the last place where people should seek justice.

“Whenever a matter captures public attention people expect a suo moto notice,” said Justice Khosa while speaking at a ceremony after chairing a meeting on police reforms. “I realised that because of the activism of some of my seniors whenever something happened in the country all the pressure was on the court. In my opinion the situation needs to be tackled by concerned officials first. If the officials are activated there is no need for court to jump in. Supreme Court has to be the last not the first resort,” Justice Khosa said.

The CJP said he did not think it was appropriate for senior officials to present themselves time and again in front of courts. “One should maintain the dignity of a police official or any other person who appears before the court,” he stressed.

Justice Khosa said: “If the Supreme Court starts interfering in matters of the government from day one then it creates difficulties.” He said for justice to be dispensed to the masses speedily it was necessary for police to conduct their investigations efficiently.

“My first task as chief justice is to protect the dignity of those who seek justice from the courts,” he said. He praised the courts for wrapping up cases and providing people with speedy justice in a short span of time. Model courts wrapped up 24,000 cases relating to drugs, he said. “We have established model courts in every district and initially they dealt with murder and narcotics cases. The result has been tremendous because police cooperated. Only through administrative measures we have fine tuned the system and eliminated the possibilities of adjournment of cases.”

Justice Khosa said concrete steps had been taken to counter false testimony. He said the investigating officer would also be treated like a suspect in a case of false testimony. “From now on the investigation officer will be held responsible for his investigation,” he said. “It’s not possible that the investigation officer does not know the truth.”

He urged judges and the courts to do their part as well in ensuring that false testimonies were identified. The CJP said his first priority had always been to restore and maintain dignity of all those appearing before court. He said police reforms should be implemented at the earliest.

Earlier, the CJP chaired a session of Police Reforms Committee (PRC) which was constituted in January to table recommendations for improvements in the policing system to examine progress. The session was attended by inspector generals of four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad.