Indepen-dent judiciary is playing a pivotal role in eradicating oppression and injustices because of which a democratically-elected government had completed its five-year term, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Sunday.
"Today there is no one to give extension to usurpers...I am proud of lawyers who took rule of law as a challenge," said the CJP while addressing the concluding session of a three-day international judicial conference here. He said the judiciary has ensured rights of the people, adding it gives priority to those who are in search of justice. He said judiciary has taken oath to protect constitution and it [judiciary] is responsible for dispensation of justice to people.
He also said that Pakistan is a nuclear state and declaring it a developing country would be unfair. "I personally believe that Pakistan is a developed country and not a developing state as we are a nuclear power...the thing which we need is good governance," he asserted.
Appreciating the government for completing its constitutional term, he said it "is our duty to play our due role for holding free, fair and transparent elections. The judiciary is the third pillar of the state and over the past few years, it has gained confidence of the people". Participants of the conference stressed the need for making concerted efforts for eliminating terrorism, besides recommending that all states should respect and secure protect human rights irrespective of region‚ ethnicity or nationality. It also called for strengthening co-operation among states at the regional and international levels to deal with international crimes.
Representatives of 21 countries attended the conference, including India‚ Egypt‚ Iran‚ Iraq‚ Afghanistan‚ Libya and Britain.
A judge of the high court of Bhutan and eminent jurists from Iran, Afghanistan and India also participated in the moot.
The event was aimed at providing opportunity to the relevant stakeholders to share their views, experiences and best practices to evolve strategies for confronting challenges being faced in the administration of justice.
On the second day of the conference, participants assembled in nine thematic groups.