It should be borne in mind that any judiciary in the world is as independent as the minds of its judges. I will relate an incident here to illustrate my point. It did not affect me personally though. Some military court decided a case in the Punjab which was entirely within the jurisdiction of the civil courts. That decision was duly challenged before the Lahore High Court. Instead of deciding the question of jurisdiction first, the High Court upheld the military court's decision on the ground that the evidence on record supported it. It should have been noted that the evidence recorded by a court, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, was no evidence. It could not have been taken into consideration at all. This decision of my own High Court did emotionally hurt me a great deal. But I drew solace from the fact that somewhat later in time, the Balochistan High Court, in similar circumstances, declared the. military court's decision null and void. The concerned judge in that High Court was later refused the new oath and consequently he ceased to be a judge. The concerned judge in the Lahore High Court had completely laid down his arms before the military regime with the result that he survived and later retired as a Supreme Court judge. The writer is a retired judge of the Lahore High Court