Outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Asif Saeed Khosa on Friday said that a campaign has been launched to defame him and the institution of judiciary, following special court’s verdict in the high treason case against Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf.
“The truth will prevail as I did what I think was right,” he said in comments ahead of his farewell speech as chief justice during a full court reference. He also clarified news reports attributed to him regarding the special court’s verdict in the high treason case.
In his speech during the reference, the outgoing CJP said he always did what he thought was right and was worth doing and it did not matter to him as to what the reaction or consequences would or could be. “I believe that a judge, besides being just and fair to all, should have a heart of a lion, nerves of steel, wisdom of a sage, expression of a man of letters and approach full of empathy and compassion. These were the ideals that I strived to follow but I do not know how successfully,” he said.
“I can, however, confidently say, and Allah Almighty be my witness for it, that I always tried to be true to the oath of my office. I gave my hundred percent to the job, tried to perform beyond the call of duty, never raised my voice, spoke mainly through my pen, never delayed a judgment unduly and after giving the best years of my life to this public service I lay down my robes today with a conscience which is clear as crystal. “I, however, in all humility at my command, seek forgiveness from all those in whose cases my judgment might have gone wrong unwittingly and also from those whose feelings I might have hurt unintentionally,” he said.
“The footprints of my judicial career, spanning over a period of about 22 years, may be found in almost every aspect of criminal and constitutional law and a student of law may find that throughout these years I have tried to consolidate legal knowledge on different aspects and have also made attempts to resolve conflicting opinions on diverse legal issues,” the chief justice said. “My tenure as chief justice of Pakistan lasted for a little over 11 months, or 337 days to be exact. If the weekends and gazetted holidays are excluded, then I had about 235 working days in this capacity. Initially this period appeared to be too short to make any meaningful contribution but in hindsight it appears to be long enough for taking some critical steps and for initiating reforms in the justice sector,” he said.
The chief justice said that video-linkage was established between the Principal Seat of this court in Islamabad and its branch registries in Quetta, Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore, facilitating lawyers to argue their cases from their own stations rather than travelling to and staying at Islamabad for the purpose. Huge expenditures which the litigant public had to incur in this regard previously, are now substantially curtailed and this step also makes it possible for the lawyers to attend to their other cases fixed at their local stations on the same day, he added.
He said that a mobile telephone application has been launched through which any person can access and receive information about any case pending before the court besides being able to read and download any interim or final order passed by the court in any case. “During the last 235 working days as many as 15,555 cases have been decided by this court despite many larger benches of the court having remained busy with some important cases consuming a lot of time,” he said.
He said that a working paper containing some proposed amendments to the Supreme Court Rules, 1980, so as to regulate suo motu exercise of this court’s jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the constitution and to provide for an intra-court appeal in this respect has been presented before the full court and the same is under active consideration.
“For expeditious holding and conclusion of trials before the trial courts, model courts have been introduced with no extra expenditure and without change of any law or procedure and with a little fine-tuning of the system the same judges and magistrates have started holding and concluding trials within a matter of days rather than years,” he said. “Such model courts include Model Criminal Trial Courts, Model Trial Magistrates Courts and Model Civil Appellate Courts. Within the last 212 working days, the model courts have decided 1,16,407 cases and in dozens of districts in the country, zero pendency of many categories of cases has been achieved, including cases of murder and narcotics,” he said.
Addressing the participants, Chief Justice-designate Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that in the office of the chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Khosa ventured upon many innovations to ensure effective and fast delivery of justice. “Especially, in criminal cases, without making any amendments in law, he (Justice Khosa) had contrived establishment of Model Courts throughout Pakistan, for deciding the criminal cases on fast track basis and it is noted with delight that the establishment of model courts, for dispensation of criminal justice, have delivered miraculous results,” he added.
He said that the most essential need of the time is that the state should build and provide for civic infrastructure so also the civil infrastructure, and such should be done and achieved, keeping in line the time and pace of the ever-progressing world. Humanistic approach has to be adopted at all levels not only by the State in performance of its functions but such humanistic approach also needs to be inculcated at all levels of the society for the healthy growth of the nation, he added.
“Rule of law, protection of Constitution and independence of the judiciary, are the foremost tasks with which this court is constantly confronted with,” he said, and emphasised that “corruption and illegalities, in all the departments of the State, need to be seriously addressed and eliminated”. All Supreme Court judges, additional attorney general, vice chairman Pakistan Bar Council, lawyers and senior journalists were present on the occasion. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa’s family was also in attendance.
