ISLAMABAD: Owing to the negligence of authorities concerned in enforcement of laws, the superior judiciary had to take multiple suo motu notices and pass appropriate orders in year 2017, which too were not implemented in true letter and spirit.
In 2017, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar took 34 suo motu notices over various human rights violations under Article 184 (3) of the constitution. These notices pertained to torture and harassment of women and children, practice of un-Islamic and illegal custom of Vani and Swara, environmental pollution, illegal occupation of state land by powerful mafias operating all over the country, sale of substandard foodstuffs at outlets of Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan and sale of substandard life-saving drugs, surgical items and even heart stents at the chemist shops.
More on the list are: poor performance of public health facilities; unjustified increase in fees of students by private schools and colleges; killing of citizens in bomb blasts; recovery of unidentified dead bodies from collective graves in Balochistan; problems of oversees Pakistanis; alleged rape with a three-year-old girl in Ghotki; out-of-order ventilators in public sector hospitals; illegal transplant of kidneys; cutting of three fingers of a new born baby at Ganga Ram Hospital in Lahore; illegal blocking of citizen’s national identity cards by National Database and Registration Authority; sale, purchase and smuggling of women in Rawalpindi and Islamabad; rape of a six-year girl in Karachi; putting on fire to a teenage girl in Rawalpindi; incident of vani of a minor girl in Jaccobabad; removal of kidney of a resident of Sheikhupura at a private hospital of Islamabad; rape of a 10-year-old girl by his uncle in Rawalpini; murder of Mashal Khan by a mob on the allegations of blasphemy at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan; gang rape of a young girl in Multan on orders of a Jirga; killing of 20 people in Turbar; deteriorated condition of Katas Raj Temple in Chakwal district and drying up of its water pond; and Faizabad sit-in by a religious party paralyzing the life of residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
The first notice was taken on January 1, 2017, in a matter pertaining to the alleged torture of a teenage girl Tayyaba, who was a maid at the residence of an additional sessions judge in Islamabad.
The CJP has recalled at various occasions that legislature can play its role by revising outdated laws and by providing forceful legal machinery. The role of judiciary, however, cannot be downplayed as strengthened judicial machinery is a sine qua non for the proper enforcement and implementation of laws.
Published in Daily Times, December 25th 2017.
