ISLAMABAD - Supreme Court judge, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan has said that wrong decisions create havoc in the society; therefore, judicial officers must take care of their decisions, and errors in their judgements.
He expressed these views in the certificate awarding ceremony of one-week training course on “Orientation of New Laws” for Additional District and Sessions Judges from all over Pakistan including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan here at the Federal Judicial He Academy (FJA) on Friday.
He said: “Once any wrong decision is taken or any error is made in the decision, then, it takes generations and generations and the person who suffers, he/ she develops feelings of deprivation and deprivation leads to aggression and aggression leads to despondency in the society and that is not good for any country, for any society. You must be fair while taking any decision. You must take decision with firm resolve and firm determination. You must take decision in accordance with the law and constitution because your decisions have enduring impact on the society.”
Quoting the noble words of Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (RA) which he uttered after his selection as the caliph, which read as, “O people! I have been selected as your trustee although I am no better than anyone of you. If I am right, obey me. If I am misguided, set me right. The weakest among you is powerful in my eyes until I do not get him his due. The most powerful among you is the weakest in my eyes until I do not make him pay due rights to others. I ask you to obey me as long as I obey Allah and His messenger. If I disobey Allah and His messenger, you are free to disobey me “, the judge of the apex court remarked if you all (the judges) act upon these words, then, we will have a bright future for this country and no power on earth can defeat us.
Quoting the visionary words of Imam Ali (A.S) which read as: “Knowledge and practice are twins, and both go together; there is no knowledge without practice, and practice without knowledge leads to deviation and practice without knowledge does not have any benefit,” Justice Ejaz said. He urged the learned judicial officers to put their knowledge into practice because it is only and only the application of knowledge and practice, which can benefit the litigant public.
“Come here in the Academy to acquire knowledge with the determination, with the resolve to practice it,” he maintained. He opined that as a judge he has always focused on the moral side of the judges because that aspect of the judges the most pivotal and critical.
“I am of this strong belief that if the judges are of strong moral fibre and character then the future of the country is safe and secure. In this connection he quoted the historic and brainstorming words of one old woman who addressed Imam Abu Hanifa when he was going along with a slippery path and said I am an old woman, if I fall, no matter but since you hold such a noble post of Imam, you should not fall because if the holder of such an important post falls, it is, indeed, a fall of the entire nation.
However, judges must keep these words into their mind and glorify the post which they are occupying, “ he remarked.