A full court meeting of the Supreme Court Thursday decided to hold an International Judicial Conference in the 3rd week of April, 2013 as per tradition established by the apex Court.
A full court meeting was held in the Supreme Court under the Chairmanship of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry stated that as per the prescribed principles enshrined in the constitution, every organ of the state has to perform its duties and functions within the mandated sphere. Institutions also strive to excel others and perform better, which is a welcome sign, as it is for better delivery and service to the people.
He said that the objective of the meeting is to improve the Court functioning and deliver to the beneficiaries of the justice system meaning the litigants and those who have approached the Court for seeking relief for violation of their rights and restoration of rights and entitlements.
“However, superior judiciary enjoys the cross cutting jurisdiction empowering it to carry out the role of oversight and ensure that no institution or department or authority may interfere in the domain of the other and further to check the unlawful or unauthorized or malafide act or exercise of authority. This power of the apex Court known as power of judicial review is a sacred trust which must be exercised in an independent and effective manner. It is a duty cast on the judiciary and the courts have to discharge it without fear or favour”, the Chief Justice said.
He said that the present day judiciary is looked upon as one institution which is delivering the services to the people in an active manner.
“Therefore, it is incumbent upon the judiciary to come up to the peoples’ expectations and become a role model for all other institutions to follow. Although no one institution has capacity to provide good governance single handedly yet the institution of the judiciary due to its credibility and institutional mandate can inspire all others to do their duties in a transparent manner keeping in view the interest of people of Pakistan”, he stated.
Deliberating over the issue of institution, disposal of cases in Supreme Court, the full court meeting noted that as against institution figure of 13,653 from 01.01.2012 to 10.11.2012 in the Supreme Court, the court decided 12,377 cases during the said period. The Court noted with satisfaction that almost as many cases were decided as were filed. This success was due to the untiring efforts of the Judges who worked hard and worked beyond the working hours and even during the summer vacations. Thus, it was resolved that two-member 03-benches, two at Lahore and one at Peshawar be constituted to reduce the backlog for the period of three months. Further, two and three member benches will be constituted at Principal seat, Islamabad.
Regarding the grant of status of senior Advocate Supreme Court (ASC), it was decided that Syed Sami Ahmad, Mr. Mushtaq Ali Tahir Kheli, Mr. Akhter Hussain and Mr. Yaseen Azad be granted status of senior advocate of Supreme Court.
The issue of enrollment of new AORs was also discussed. It was decided that the stations where adequate number of AORs were not available may be considered for such enrollments. For the other stations the cases of enrollment may be deferred for the time being. The names of Mr. Said Tahar (Swat), Mr. Saadullah Mian (Peshawar), Mr. Muhammad Ayaz Khan Swati (Quetta) Syed Rifaqat Hussain Shah (Rawalpindi), Qari Abdul Rasheed (Rawalpindi), Mr. Ahmad Nawaz Chaudhry (Jhelum) and Mr. Tariq Aziz (Islamabad) were approved for enrollment as AORs.
The full court meeting was attended by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Tariq Parvez, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sh. Azmat Saeed.
Dr. Faqir Hussain, Registrar Supreme Court and Sajid Mehmood Qazi, Additional Registrar, Supreme Court also attended the meeting.