Justice Mansoor stresses reforms in judges appointments

F.P. Report

LAHORE: Supreme Court Justice Mansoor Ali Shah on Saturday called for reviewing the mechanism for appointment of judges in higher judiciary and said he wasn’t happy with the institution’s history. Justice Shah said judges shouldn’t be appointed on the basis of recommendations, if the intent was to keep the system running.

The one who wasn’t performing should be thrown out of the judicial system, he noted.

A judge could make a system collapse and also make it function efficiently, Justice Shah said and stressed that everyone had to forget about managing the institution individually.

In his address to the Fifth Asma Jahangir Conference, an annual event organised in the city in recognition of her services for human rights, the senior judge said judiciary had in the past passed some good and bad verdicts. “It is true,” Justice Shah said, adding that there were some dark spots in the history of Pakistan’s judiciary.

The constitution says judiciary should be fully independent, the judge noted and said the poor judgements were the cause of controversy. However, Justice Shah noted that removal of any judge wasn’t easy and produced grouping, as he highlighted the need for zero-tolerance policy towards corruption.

“We would have to introduce reforms in the institution,” he told the audience and added that people sell their cattle to reach courts and “you people say that there is a strike”. To improve the working and create better environment within judiciary, the senior judge also called for inducting more women in judiciary from the district level to the top and establishing commercial courts in the country.