Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said on Sunday that he was confident that the constitution would be adhered to instead of reasons being found to circumvent it. He added that decisions of the top court have a ‘force of their own’ and will be implemented eventually.
Speaking at a conference on minority rights in Lahore, the chief justice said that good court decisions are made on merit and not on technicality.
“If it (the constitution) says 90 days for holding elections, it is our duty to say that,” the chief justice said. “It is not our choice.”
“Whenever we resort to technicality, our focus is shifted elsewhere,” he said while referring to the Maulvi Tamizuddin case, adding that we must not ‘blink’ when the matter at hand was related to constitutional enforcement.
He also said that individual judges of the Supreme Court need not be supported, seemingly alluding to the pro-CJP rallies held by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Saturday.
“You say you support us, please don’t say that, I am just one of the members of the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” the CJP said. “If you stand up for the constitution and the law, then you must stand with the Supreme Court of Pakistan and not any individual.”
“We have no existence individually, our existence is as a unit, as a constitutional organ and that is how we function.” He added that he was a ‘humble man’ and not worthy of controversy.
“The important thing is when the Supreme Court speaks on merit, its judgement is on moral authority,” he said. “If a judgement is not challenged it becomes final”
He added that he was ‘optimistic’ that the people, leaders and institutions of the country were committed to the constitution and were negotiating out of that sense of commitment. However, he added that the court had nothing to do with the negotiation but would support it.
“Otherwise our judgement is there, it has a force of its own. It will not be implemented today, it will last the test is time and shall be implemented tomorrow.”
“So let’s see what happens now,” with a smile.
