KARACHI: Chief Justice-designate of the Sindh High Court Justice Faisal Arab on Monday said that competence and efficiency of judges in the dispensation of justice was as important as the independence of the judiciary.

He was addressing the participants of the full court reference held to bid farewell to outgoing SHC Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, who has been elevated to the Supreme Court.

CJ-designate Arab paid tribute to the outgoing chief justice, saying that CJ Baqar braved an attempt on his life. He wished him happiness, good health and long life.

He said the chief justice had been judge of the SHC for twelve and a half years and he held the office of the chief justice for about one and a half years. “When a judge becomes chief justice of the high court, he actually reaches the last rung of the ladder of the high court administration,” he said, adding that it was the last stage for Justice Baqar to serve the high court as well as the provincial judiciary.

He said: “It is he who can take decisive steps and, with the help of his brother judges, can bring about qualitative change.”

CJ-designate Arab said that problems faced by the litigants were enormous but not insurmountable. “In my view initially even small steps would make our judicial system more trustworthy sources of dispensation of justice”.

He, however, said that such small steps needed to be taken at an accelerated speed.

The CJ-designate said the problems faced by the judges of the district judiciary and the lawyers needed to be addressed, but they were to be addressed in a way that ultimately served the litigant public.

He said the justice delivery system needed reformative changes as well. “To make such changes we should all demonstrate the same love for the institution of the judiciary which was demonstrated by lawyers and this civil society during lawyer’s movement.”

The CJ-designate said that events of Nov 3, 2007, were etched in history. “The good that came out of it was that the judiciary has become more independent now,” he said, adding that mere independence was not sufficient.

Earlier, outgoing CJ Baqar said situation in the lower judiciary was deplorable in many respects and it urgently required reforms. He said some steps had been taken towards the judiciary’s reformation but it would take some time to fix it.

He said he was sure that the problems facing the judicial system were not insurmountable, provided they were faced resolutely. He expressed the hope that his colleague judges would be able to reform the judiciary.

He stressed upon the lawyers associations to play their role in building judicial institutions.

CJ Baqar said that without the efforts and struggle of the lawyers and his colleagues, who were deposed during emergency, he would not have been in office. He lauded the lawyers struggle for restoration of the judiciary.

Sindh Bar Council vice chairman Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, SHC Bar Association president Abid S. Zuberi, Karachi Bar Association president Naeem Qureshi, Deputy Attorney General Salman Talibuddin and others also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play