The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, on Saturday said the judiciary had the right to review government's extra-constitutional acts. Speaking at the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-elected body of Karachi Bar Council, the Chief Justice made it clear that it was not the judiciary's job to interfere in the executive's affairs, rather it had to work within the country's Constitutional limits as an independent state organ.
Taking a serious note of the lawyers' targeted killings in the city, he asked the administration to follow the registered cases of murders on a priority basis. He also urged the lower courts to play their role in uprooting the menace of corruption. Similarly, he said, the government or executive was also required to perform its functions independently within the legal limits. He said the judiciary was the protector of the law and had to monitor the actions of different departments to ascertain whether those were legal and stop them from committing unconstitutional acts.
He asked the DG Rangers Sindh, IG Sindh Police, and other law enforcement high-ups to complete investigations into the killings of lawyers in the city and submit reports to the courts, as soon as possible. The Chief Justice observed that corruption was a menace which had hampered the access to justice, saying it was a big challenging obstacle. He hoped the bars and bench through joint efforts could uproot the menace.
He said there was a need of more judges at the courts with a view to disposing of cases on an immediate basis. He said the competent lawyers from across the province should be appointed on the vacant slots of judges. On the occasion, judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan and Sindh High Court including Justice Shakir-ullah Jan, Justice Gulzar Ahmad, Justice Khilji Arif Hassan and Chief Justice of Sindh High Court, Mushir Alam, were also present.