RAWALPINDI – Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, has said that expectations of the public with judiciary after its restoration could not be fulfilled.
He said that judiciary has the mandate to resolve the public grievances and not to project any party or personality in any case. It is obligatory upon the judges to lay down verdicts on merit and not on the basis on any individual personality.
CJ LHC Azmat Saeed Sheikh said this while addressing a function arranged in his honour by District Bar Association (DBA) Rawalpindi here on Friday. The function was also attended by Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh, Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Younas, Justice Khawaja Muhammad Imtiaz, Islamabad High Court (IHC) Judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, judges of lower courts, Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) President Sheikh Ahsan-ud-Din, Secretary General Raheel Khan, DBA President Sajid Ilyas Bhatti, Punjab Bar Association (PBA) members Shafqat Ali Bhatti, Ghulam Mustafa Kundwal, Raja Ishtiaq and presidents of all district and teshil bars.
Justice Sheikh said that public was not being dispensed speedy justice in Punjab due to problems in the existing judicial system. However, Justice admitted with open heart that he was the responsible for the troubles being faced by the people in getting justice in Punjab. He said that it was also a fact that that 85 per cents of cases were being heard in the lower courts where the strength of the judges was less.
He said that the government allocated meagre funds for judiciary in the budget because of which judiciary was facing problems.
LHCBA President Sheikh Ahsan said that CJ Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh was the judge who denied taking oath under PCO during Musharraf regime. He said that at a time when Prime Minister House and Awan-e-Sadr have become “Corruption Houses” the people pined their hopes with judiciary to wipe out corruption from the country. But, unfortunately, the government was daringly violating the verdicts of Supreme Court of Pakistan in RPPs, NRO and Bank of Punjab scandal.
He said that it was the fruit of independence of the apex courts that PM was appearing before the court. He said that the issue of missing persons has become very serious and the SCP should solve it as soon as possible so that the miseries of relatives of missing persons could be lessened.