ISLAMABAD: Justice Umer Atta Bandial of the Supreme Court has said the judicial system of Pakistan is determined to dispensing justice. Addressing a seminar organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and MC Mayor Chamber of the United Kingdom, Bandial said that courts should give verdicts on merit and in time.
“The judicial system of Pakistan is much better than the judicial system of neighbouring India. The problems and issues in both countries are the same, but the number of suo motu notices in our country is higher as compare to India,” he said. He said the judicial system of Pakistan was based on the basic principle that the accused should be given the right to a fair trial.
Justice Bandial said the Supreme Court would interfere where the system would not be followed. “We identify the issues through arguments and we have to improve the judicial system. We have to evolve a system to remove the complexities existing in the cases,” he said. He said there were two kinds of cases in Pakistan: old and new. Judiciary’s performance on the old cases was better, but it needed a lot of time for arguments on new cases. “Ironically, our judicial system could not get the confidence of foreign investors through its verdicts and foreign investors were of the view that they were wasting the capital. He said that “root cause of this problem was the excess of cases”. He said the Supreme Court of the United States would not make verdict on a case in one year, but the Supreme Court of Pakistan would do it even in one month despite the fact that it had just 17 judges. SCBA President Syed Ali Zafar and senior lawyers in large numbers attended the seminar.
