PESHAWAR, June 21: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan said on Thursday that superior courts had been deciding cases in accordance with law and constitution and no state institution could stop them from performing their constitutional functions. He said that judiciary was not scared of accountability as they had no spot on their track record.

The chief justice was speaking at a workshop on “Media ethics and court reporting”, organised by the Press Council of Pakistan in collaboration with PHC Bar Association.

He said that due to successive martial laws the state institutions, including judiciary and media, could not flourish. He saidthat 2007 was a challenging year for the judiciary and media and both emerged triumphant from it.

“Conspiracies were hatched on several occasions for stopping the superior courts from performing their constitutional duty, but all of those failed. The judiciary is still facing challenges,” the chief justice said, adding that judiciary, lawyers and media were important parts of the system.

Referring to the off-air video footage of a private TV channel, he said that the entire media could not be blamed for the issue, as black sheep were present in all the fields. He said that black sheep could be exposed through the practice of self-accountability in media.

The chief justice said that the Constitution of Pakistan guaranteed freedom of press, and the judiciary would protect an independent media. He regretted that certain media outlets had been exploiting their staff and said that they should improve salary structure and incentives of journalists.Press Council of Pakistan chairman Shafqat Abbasi said that media had assumed independence through long, arduous struggle. He stated that two of the four provinces had so far not enacted any law related to access to information and they were advocating with those provinces to introduce a law in this regard.

Mr Abbasi pointed out that court reporters needed to be properly trained, and they should take extra care while reporting from courts. He said that media should avoid releasing reports based on rumours as it created problems in the society. He said that they had now been taking all the stakeholders into confidence to formulate a code of ethics.

PHCBA president Abdul Lateef Afridi said that a strong bond existed between the media and judiciary. He said that institutions should not overstep their constitutional powers.

TV anchor Syed Talat Hussain said that an entire lobby had been supporting Malik Riaz against the judiciary. He said that except Imran Khan rest of the politicians remained silent over the issue of Mr Riaz.

Another anchor Hamid Mir stated that in current situation the responsibility of media and judiciary had increased manifold.

He said that Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the PHC chief justice had been doing commendable job in missing persons’ cases.

Lawyer Athar Minallah said that the prime responsibility of judiciary was dispensation of justice and a society could only flourish if speedy and cheap justice was available to its people.

Khyber Union of Journalists president Arshid Aziz and Peshawar Press Club president Saiful Islam also spoke on the occasion.