He said claim of trillions of rupees stuck in the taxes and other fiscal cases before courts might not reflect the true picture    

October 29, 2023       Justice Babar Sattar. — IHC website

ISLAMABAD: Justice Babar Sattar of Islamabad High Court (IHC) said Saturday stay orders for longer periods showed inefficiency of judicial system, resulting in increased pendency of cases of taxes and other fiscal-related issues

He was addressing a session on Justice for All under Econ Fest. The session was organised by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) in collaboration with 33 other partners here at the Pak-China Centre.

He said claim of trillions of rupees stuck in the taxes and other fiscal cases before courts might not reflect the true picture. He hinted at frivolous cases filed by the different public sector departments against each other or against the regulators that also resulted in increased pendency of superior courts.

He emphasised the need for effective placement of Court Management System and Case Management System that should be used for speedy disposal of the pending cases.

On the occasion, IMF’s former official Masood Ahmed said there were 30 countries, including Pakistan, where the debt burden mounted a lot. Only four countries approached for debt restructuring of their outstanding foreign loans, he said. However, he opposed it and argued the debt restructuring was not done by multilateral creditors, while it took more than two years during which several macroeconomic indicators and situations changed a lot.

Justice Babar Sattar said there were certain issues that could only be resolved by executives through improved governance and service delivery instead of plunging the judiciary into the affairs of all other institutions.

“The judges are like empires, and they will have to make decisions in accordance with the law and whatever was produced in the shape of facts or evidence before them. There will be pressure on judges and they should know how to tackle it,” Justice Babar Sattar said.

He said he had faced pressures, whereby acquaintances or relatives tried to influence him, and the best option was to detach from any such case. He said he was still critical of the judiciary, as there was a lot of room for improvement.

He said the judiciary has limitations, as they would have to rely upon the record produced before them. He cited an example if someone claimed he had gone to Northern Areas on his own free will, the judiciary could be blamed. “There was a need for enhanced transparency”, he said.

To a question about induction of top judges, he said improvements were made and more reforms could be done to bring more transparency to it. Submitting applications could be introduced to induct judges into superior judiciary, he suggested.

Journalist Zahid Hussain said populism had caused a loss of credibility of judiciary.

Later, in another session, PPP leader Nadeem Afzal Chan said people do criticise politicians, but no one spares time and energy to come into politics for bringing transformation. Without active participation of the masses, no change could take place, he opined.

He said he had made efforts to involve women in politics but failed. “There should be only two terms for the PM. Political class has limited powers, as it is not possible to discuss each and every sensitivity in public domain”, he noted. Citing Gate-4, he said it could not be discussed openly.