Lahore High Court Chief Justice, Khawaja Muhammad Sharif awarded certificates to the newly appointed civil judges who completed their 12-week training course at the Punjab Judicial Academy.
While addressing the group, he told judicial officers that they should not succumb to any pressure and should follow in the footsteps of Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who refused to bow down to a military dictator. Justice Sharif advised the officers to dispense justice among the masses without any favour or fear to purge the judiciary of corruption and respect lawyers and litigants irrespective of their status. He urged the civil judges to avoid unnecessary delay in deciding cases to lessen miseries of litigants as people complained that cases have been lying pending for years.
He said appointments in the judicial staff were being made strictly on merit in a transparent manner. He added that recently 6,000 advocates appeared in examination for 223 seats of civil judges and 570 were declared pass.He also informed that new courtrooms were being built for judicial officers in the LDA Complex adjacent to Aiwan-i-Adl.
Senior LHC judge, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar Hussain, academy Director General, Justice (R) Tanvir Ahmed Khan and sessions judges also attended the ceremony.