Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said that judges as the guardians of constitution have heavy responsibilities on their shoulder to ensure that all the institutions and authorities maintain the supremacy of law.
He was speaking to the officers of the 97th National Management Course, held by National School of Public Policy, National Management College here in Islamabad on Monday.
He said that the Supreme Court is the court of ultimate jurisdiction in this country. The composition, powers and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court are set out by the constitution itself. The Court exercises original, appellate, review and advisory jurisdictions and its decisions are binding on all other courts of Pakistan.
The Chief Justice said that the officers, who are being imparted specialized training for taking on higher responsibilities in your respective careers. “It is my firm belief that strong institutions provide the bedrock for building everlasting mechanisms and sustaining socio economic, political and cultural growth and development”, he added.
He said that to establish and run these national institutions, the country needs a well trained and inspired bureaucracy which has the capacity and necessary means to anticipate the mounting socio economic challenges and come up with workable solutions both in the short and long run.
He said that for any developing country like Pakistan the basic requirement for enhancing national growth through competitiveness is pegged on the four pillars i.e. strengthening of institutions, infrastructure, economic stability and health & education.
These four pillars form the foundation of achieving competitiveness for ensuring socio economic growth of our country. And these four drivers of growth can only deliver if  the civil servants put them to good use.
The Chief Justice said that during last couple of decades when he noticed during his carrier that the strength or weakness of these four drivers was directly related to the rise and fall of our national growth.
He said that the institutions have assumed a significant place in the realm of socio economic growth. According to Douglas North, a Nobel Laureate in economics, institutions are simply the rules of the game in a society. The growth and development of a society mainly depends upon the rules and regulations which it adopts for itself. If the rules and regulations create a level playing field and provide equal opportunity to all under the constitution and law, then a society is bound to grow. On the other hand, if the dice is loaded against the majority, the environment will generate frustration and distortions leading to chaos and restlessness in the society.
He said that to define the correct rules and regulations under the law the whole nation especially who have some authority to do any thing reward merit and hard work and ensure the implementation of   twin principles of rule of law and supremacy of Constitution. But for this the citizens of this country trust the system and think it provides them fair opportunity to realize their dreams in a transparent manner.
He asked the question that does the present system have the capacity to discourage the corrupt and rent seekers and do the country has a system where civil and property rights are protected and contracts are fully enforced.
“If the answer to all these questions is resounding yes, then we can claim that the rules and regulations in practice here are transparent and fair. In such environment everyone will have the incentive to work hard and invest their energies and resources in their respective fields. But, if unfortunately, the answer to the above proposition is no, then I am afraid, the system is distorted and does not provide level playing field for the people to achieve in life whatever they are capable of. Unless we take a concerted effort to remove these distortions in our system it will be well nigh impossible to create favorable environment promoting competitiveness and growth”, he added.
He said that the constitution of Pakistan, 1973 envisages in detail many fundamental rights to the citizen of the country. These rights, inter alia, include right of individual to be dealt with in accordance with law; security of person; safeguard as to arrest and detention; right to fair trial; inviolability of dignity of man; freedom of movement; assembly, association; trade; business or profession; speech, information; freedom to profess the religion; protection of property rights; equality of citizens; right of education; safeguard against discrimination in service and last but not the least the promotion of social and economic well being of the people.
He said that the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution have to be implemented in letter and spirit. Primarily it is the duty of the state, and to a large extent to the executive organ of the State, to ensure that these fundamental rights are not only freely available to the people but any denial of these rights is swiftly responded to and relief is provided to the citizens at a minimum cost. This is sine qua non of a truly independent and welfare State. Gone are the days when stability and security of the country was defined in terms of number of missiles and tanks as a manifestation of hard power available at the disposal of the State. Today, the concept of national security has been redefined as a polity wherein a State is bound to provide its citizens with overwhelming, social security and welfare nets and to protect their natural and civil rights at all costs. Thus, the executive branch of the country ably assisted by professionally trained civil service is bound to provide a conducive environment where the vast majority of people are able to make progress in various disciplines of their choices.
CJP said that the present day Supreme Court is alive to the fact that it has been restored to its original position by unprecedented struggle carried out by a consort of such professional classes as lawyers, students, media persons and civil society at large. Now, they expect that judicial hierarchy of the country from the court of a civil judge to that of the court of highest appeal should deliver justice to all without fear or favour in a most expeditious manner. To achieve this object, after restoration, I utilized the forum provided by the National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) by initiating a consultation process to assess the challenges of delay and backlog of cases and how to over come it.