LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmad on Saturday said that the courts are, and would remain, independent.

“The courts would continue to pass judgements, independently,” he said speaking at a function hosted by the Punjab Bar Council, here on Saturday.

The chief justice said it was very unbecoming to presume that there was any inclination in the judiciary.

“The courts do not follow trends or seasons but decisions are made on the basis of facts in a case,” he said and added that the judges were supposed to uphold rule of law and protect fundamental rights.

Referring to incidents of misconduct in courts, he advised the lawyers not to make adverse decisions as a reason for quarrelling with judges.

Chief Justice Ahmad said: “An advocate is supposed to be a person of reasoning and a person of law.”

He said the lawyers were also supposed to be well conversant with the manners of appearance before a court. He stated that the bar and bench were part and parcel of the justice system.

He pointed out that the canons of professional etiquettes were part of the Legal Practitioner and Bar Council Act 1973. He questioned whether the lawyers had forgotten those canons. He said the bar council needed to make the lawyers understand these canons at the time of their enrolment.

The chief justice stressed upon the need of training of new entrants in the legal profession at the bar level.

He acknowledged that the key issue the country’s judiciary faced at higher and subordinate courts level was the huge backlog of cases.

However, he said Covid-19 pandemic situation had been a main reason behind the pendency of the cases. He also termed frivolous litigation a cause of huge backlog of cases in the courts from lower to top.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021