ISLAMABAD – A full court reference was held in honour of Chief Justice AsifSaeed Khan Khosa’s retirement at the Supreme Court on Friday.
The reference was addressed by outgoing Chief Justice Asif Saeed KhanKhosa, Chief Justice-designate Justice Gulzar Ahmed, the AdditionalAttorney General and the President Supreme Court Bar Association.
All Supreme Court judges, Additional Attorney General, Vice ChairmanPakistanBar Council, lawyers and senior journalists were also present on theoccasion. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa’s family was also in attendance.
Addressing the full court reference, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosasaid: “The footprints of my judicial career, spanning over a period ofabout 22 years, may be found in almost every aspect of criminal andconstitutional law and a student oflaw may find that throughout these years I have tried to consolidate legalknowledge on different aspects and have also made attempts to resolveconflicting opinions on diverse legal issues.”
He said: “My tenure as the Chief Justice of Pakistan lasted for a littleover 11 months, or 337 days to be exact. If the weekends and gazettedholidays are excluded then I had about 235 working days in that capacity.Initially that period appeared to be too short to make any meaningfulcontribution but in hindsight it appears to be long enough for taking somecritical steps and for initiating reforms in the justice sector.”
He said that video-linkage was established between the Principal Seat ofthisCourt at Islamabad and its Branch Registries at Quetta, Peshawar, Karachiand Lahore, facilitating lawyers to argue their cases from their ownstations rather than travelling to and staying at Islamabad for thatpurpose. Huge expenditure which the litigant public had to incur in thisregard previously, is now substantially curtailed and this step also makesit possible for the lawyers to attend to their other cases fixed at theirlocal stations on the same day, he added.
He said that a mobile telephone application had been launched through whichany person can access and receive information about any case pending beforethe Court besides being able to read and download any interim or finalorder, passed by the Court in any case.
He said, “During the last 235 working days as many as 15,555 cases havebeen decided by this Court despite many Larger Benches of the Court, havingremained busy with some important cases consuming a lot of time.”
He said that a working paper containing some proposed amendments to theSupreme Court Rules, 1980 so as to regulate suo motu exercise of thisCourt’s jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the Constitution and toprovide for an Intra-Court Appeal in that respect has been presented beforethe Full Court and the same is under active consideration.
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For expeditious holding and conclusion of trials before the trial courtsModel Courts have been introduced with no extra expenditure and withoutchange of any law or procedure and with a little fine-tuning of the systemthe same Judges and Magistrates have started holding and concluding trialswithin a matter of days rather than years,” he said and added that “suchModel Courts include Model Criminal Trial Courts, Model Trial MagistratesCourts and Model Civil Appellate Courts. Within the last 212 working days,the Model Courts have decided 1,16,407 cases and in dozens of Districts inthe country zero pendency of many categories of cases has been achieved,including cases of murder and narcotics.”
He said: “I believe that a Judge, besides being just and fair to all,should have a heart of a lion, nerves of steel, wisdom of a sage,expression of a man of lettersand approach, full of empathy and compassion.”
Addressing the participants Chief Justice-designate Justice Gulzar Ahmedsaidthat in the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Khosa hadventured upon many innovations to ensure effective and fast delivery ofjustice.
“Especially, in criminal cases, without making any amendments in law, he(Justice Khosa) had contrived establishment of Model Courts throughoutPakistan, for deciding the criminal cases on fast track basis and it isnoted with delight that the establishment of Model Courts, for dispensationof criminal justice, have delivered miraculous results,” he added.
He said that Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa had also established a PoliceReforms Committee, to ensure that the establishment of Police, all overPakistan, establish law and order and redress the issues of the people ofPakistan, effectively, and to rebuild its image and inspire confidence inthe people, to cooperate with and give effective assistance to the police,in dealing with the issues of crimes, etc.”
He said that the most essential need of the time is that the State shouldbuild and provide for civic infrastructure so also the civilinfrastructure, and such should be done and achieved, keeping in line thetime and pace of the ever-progressingworld. Humanistic approach, needs and has to be adopted, at all levels, notonly by the State, in performance of its functions, but such humanisticapproach also needs to be inculcated at all levels of the society for thehealthy growth of the nation, he added.
He said that bench and the bar are considered as co-extensive bodies, andthereis no gain in saying that there should not be any difference ormisunderstanding in them nor should such thing be visualized. Both, theBench and the Bar, need to be restricted and respect to their respectivefunctions and show restraints in their mutual dealings, so as not to causeobstruction for the smooth functioning of justice delivery system, he added.
