Judiciary has to subject to system than individuals, Justice Mansoor

Islamabad: Supreme Court judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah Saturday said that the judiciary will have to be subject to the system instead of individuals.

Addressing the Asma Jahangir Conference in Islamabad, he stated that Asma Jahangir has great services for human rights, it is an honor for him to participate in the Conference and will talk about the future today.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah added that our judicial history is not proud, ‘We have to reform our institution,’ it is not even that the judicial system is not working. It is written in the constitution that the judiciary should give easy justice. Some decisions may be bad, 4,000 judges are working daily, 2.4 million cases are pending in Pakistan. From January 2023 to December 2023, 1.39 million cases were given decisions.

It is necessary to resort to technology for the pending cases. If we do not incorporate IT in our system, it will be difficult to deal with 2.4 million, stated the judge.

He said that if I ask a session judge, he cannot tell about the case. We have to take smart technology to the district level, the data about our judiciary in the world is a concern.

He further said: “We have 4,000 cases reported daily in the Supreme Court, 1,000 cases are filed in the lower courts, globally there are 90 judges per one million people, here we have 13 judges per one million people, we need 90,000 judges. The highest budget in Brazil is for the judiciary, the army is second”.

He said that in UK there is one lawyer for 203 people, in Pakistan there is one lawyer for 1000 people. The number of lawyers in Pakistan should increase but the lawyers should be right. The commercial courts are given importance all over the world, we should pay attention to it. A commercial corridor will be built in Pakistan, it will facilitate solving the economic issues.

Mansoor Ali also stated that it is everyone's right to criticize the decisions of the courts. According to the constitution, the judiciary should be completely independent.

The judge also added that corruption in the judiciary should be completely eradicated.

Judge who does not deliver should be removed. There should be zero tolerance on corruption. The case management system is very important, it should not be that any case is set to any judge for hearing, said Mansoor Ali Shah.

He said that in Pakistan there is a strike on anything, there will be a strike if the cricket match is lost, people come to the courts by selling goats and buffaloes.

Justice Mansoor continued that according to the World Bank report, 80% of the cases are postponed, where something happens from the side of the judiciary, the lawyers also delay the cases. Realize what it costs a person to come to court during strike.

He further added that 50% of the population of Pakistan are women, but we are not bringing in women judges, only 562 female judges are there. We have to take important steps for this. Unless there is training, the system cannot work. If we leave training and reforms, the system will not improve.

He also stated that if the justice system is weak then no system will work, a strong justice system will strengthen other institutions as well.