THE Sindh Bar Council (SBC) has urged the judiciary to counter the perception that there is an internal disunity among judges and to tackle alleged threats to the independence of judiciary. The SBC members have said this in a letter written to Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed against the backdrop of a recent video in which a man is seen using derogatory language against the judiciary.
The points and instances raised by the SBP in the said letter need serious consideration not just by the judiciary itself but also the Government of Pakistan as any dent in the image and prestige of the judiciary would be suicidal for the society. It is, indeed, disgusting that the trend of ridiculing and abusing judges and the entire judiciary is rising especially on social media, which seems to be part of the conspiracy to discredit one of the pillars of the state. Judges take decisions on merit and on the basis of available evidence and like elsewhere in the world their verdicts might not be liked by some people but this should not mean that they should be abused for that. The instances of contempt of the court and judiciary are on the rise because of, among other factors, lenient view taken by judges of such incident. The judiciary acted promptly in some cases and awarded punishment to individuals but closed its eyes to other instances, encouraging unscrupulous elements to continue their tirade against the judiciary. Supreme Court has already taken notice of the video in question and hopefully all aspects of the issue would be dealt with effectively during hearing of the case.
