RAWALPINDI, May 15 Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has said that it's better to lock up the courts than to put justice on sale, as the next challenge for both the bar and the bench is to provide speedy justice to people who have pinned lots of hope on the restored judges.

The chief justice was addressing a gathering arranged by the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) Rawalpindi at a local hotel late on Thursday.

The ceremony celebrating the success of the lawyers' two-year struggle for the restoration of deposed judges was also attended among others by Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fiaz, Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice Nasirul Mulk of the Supreme Court, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Tariq Pervaiz and former Supreme Court Bar Association presidents Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir A. Malik and Hamid Ali Khan.

Vowing to root out corruption from the judiciary, the CJP asked the chief justices of the four high courts to call back all judicial officers deputed in other departments as backlog in the courts should be done away with and speedy trails must be conducted. He warned if the judicial officers did not return to the mother institute, they should consider themselves out of job.

Lamenting the inactivity of judiciary to evolve itself as an independent institution, the CJP said 2009 had been titled as “Justice for All at Grass-roots Level.” He urged the lawyers to provide the Supreme Court with feedback as they were trying to evolve a short-term policy to speed up the disposal of the civil and criminal cases.

Justice Chaudhry said he had taken the restoration as a challenge.

He asked the lawyers to work with the same kind of enthusiasm for the rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) as they had worked for the restoration of the judges.

“The displaced people are like a part of our body and we can feel their pain,” Justice Chaudhry said. “They should also be made to feel that every part of this country is their home.”

Lahore High Court CJ Khwaja Sharif, in his address, warned the judges of the trial courts not to delay the disposal of cases, asking the lawyers at the same time not to seek undue adjournments. “If bar is strong, no judge can dare get involved in corruption,” Mr Sharif remarked.

Speaking on the occasion, the representatives of the lawyers including Aitzaz, Muinr Malik and Hamid Ali said it was time to strengthen the hands of the CJP and other independent-minded judges.