• Justice Mansoor asserts courts ‘united’ against interference
• Pro-Palestine protesters disrupt German envoy’s speech over Gaza policy

LAHORE: Senior puisne judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah on Satur­day maintained that judiciary will stand united against any interference in its system as he called for a ‘firewall’ to protect the institution from undue interference.

Speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the 5th Asma Jahangir Conference, Justice Shah said there was a need to develop a ‘firewall’ around the judiciary to protect it from interference.

“The judiciary will stand united against any interference that comes to our system and we take it seriously,” he said.

“All institutions in the country must realise that if there is no justice, they cannot survive,” he said and added that an independent justice system was critical for all.

“…there is no rocket science about it. Please, the justice system has to be strong, robust and independent for all institutions to develop, grow, and prosper. This is a simple message…” he said, without naming anyone.

At the outset, he paid tribute to Asma Jahangir, saying she was a formidable lawyer of Pakistan and an activist renowned for her unwavering commitment to human rights and courage in the face of opposition.

‘Dark patches of history’

Justice Shah, who will be the next chief justice, said he did not come to the conference to defend the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court or take pride in some of the good things that had been done. “I think there have been dark patches in the history of the judiciary and I am not proud of that.”

Sharing his ideas to make the judiciary as imagined by the Constitution, he said the individualistic thoughts to run the institution needed to be forgotten. He said every institution needed to be run through a system not by individuals.

Justice Shah stated that until “we transition from reliance on individuals to the system itself, this system would always be subject to the whims of individuals”.

“That’s why there’s no continuity in judicial institutions,” he said and regretted that every chief justice “takes the institution the way he likes”.

He said it was the first time when Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa surrendered his powers and implemented the practice and procedure law in the Supreme Court to establish a system. He said it was a misconception that judicial system was completely stagnant.

He pointed out that 4,000 judges worked daily and courts decided nearly 1.6 million cases in 2023. However, he said it was true that the judicial system was slow. Currently, 2.4m cases are pending in courts, he said, adding that 80 to 90 per cent of these cases were pending in the district judiciary.

He mentioned that Pakis­tan, a country of 231 million people, had the lowest number of lawyers per capita in the world. He said there was one lawyer for 1,000 citizens in Pakistan; whereas, in the United Kingdom and Austra­lia, there was one lawyer for 203 and 300 citizens, respectively.

The judge said he accepted the critique that according to a World Bank justice project, the judiciary ranked very low. “But we need to identify the steps we can take to improve our judiciary,” he added.

Judges’ appointment

He said the judiciary’s impo­r­tant aspect was the method and criteria for the appointments of judges. “The appointments of judges in district courts and high courts are a challenge for us,” he admitted.

He said the present leadership of the Supreme Court was reviewing the entire process of judges’ appointments, as it was needed to consider “not only a judge’s work and character but also end nepotism”.

He said accountability of district judges was essential, just like the Supreme Judicial Council, which hears complaints against the judges of superior courts. The SC judge said an incompetent judicial officer could not be allowed to stay in the institution till their retirement.

Justice Shah said there was a need to move with the world which “has adopted multiple alternative methods to provide justice”.

“There are other options available to resolve matters before resorting to traditional judicial proceedings,” he said. In Pakistan, he said, alternate methods of justice, particularly Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), were being worked on.

Justice Shah said Pakistan also failed to establish designated “commercial courts”, which were given preference in the world over any other co­­u­­rt. A commercial court “boo­sts the economy and looks after the business” in a country, he said, adding that it was more important than a criminal court.

Gender representation

The senior judge also stressed the representation of women in the justice system, saying, “Our gender representation is very poor.” He said women were 50 per cent of the country’s population but this proportion did not reflect in the justice system. He pointed out that there were 562 women judges in the country, including two in the Supreme Court. “We have to take a special step to bring women judges at district, the high court and Supreme Court level,” he emphasised.

Pro-Palestine protest

During the conference, some pro-Palestine protesters interrupted the German ambassador’s speech. Moments after the envoy began his spee­­ch, a young protester shouted: “Excuse me, Mr ambassador. I am shocked by the audacity that you are here to talk about civil rights while your country is brutally abusing the people speaking for the rights of the Palestinians.”

His comments drew applause and cheer among the participants while chants of “Free, Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea” could also be heard.

The protest was also joined by some other students (the Progressive Students’ Collective), chanting slogans in favour of Palestinian people. Responding to protesters, Alfred Grannas said: “If you want to shout, go out, there you can shout. Because shouting is not a discussion.”

A live stream of the event muted Amb Grannas’ comments after that and then disabled the live stream for a few minutes. The PSC said the protesters were manhandled, a claim dismissed by the organisers.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2024