Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that society becomes free when it gets justice since the latter was necessary to uplift the commoner. He reassured that the govt would fully support the judiciary.
Addressing a ceremony in reference to the ground-breaking of the Islamabad District Courts’ building, the premier said the weak in society needed justice and protection. “If you would like to uplift the commoner […] then it’s necessary to supply them justice also and a society becomes free when it gets justice,” he said.
He added that investment and development flowed into a rustic when the justice system provided protection and ensured contract enforcement. “When there’s justice during a country then investment and prosperity follow.”
The premier explained that he had given the PTI its name when he entered politics since he had seen the country’s decline and thought why should it lag behind other countries. He attributed Pakistan’s decline to a scarcity of rule of law.
“Whatever banana republics are there aren’t due to lack of resources but due to the rule of power rather than rule of law,” he said, lamenting that “two Pakistans” were created within the country with differing treatment between the people.
“The greatest injustice that General [Pervez] Musharraf did with this country — aside from violating the Constitution — is giving NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) to the powerful. it had been not his money but of the state so he did not have the proper to mention ‘we forgive you’.”
The prime minister said he was pleased with being a neighborhood of the 2007 lawyers’ movement, terming it an “epic struggle” for democracy and rule of law where “we were saying to a military dictator that you simply can’t remove a judge like this”.
“I was saying 25 years ago that the country can only progress when the courts are free,” he added.
The premier, however, lamented that the movement had not yielded the results that it should have.
“The struggle for rule of law and justice is ongoing and society continuously strives for it. Whichever society establishes rule of law is prosperous.”
Reiterating that overseas Pakistanis were the country’s biggest asset, he said they were reluctant to funnel investment thanks to landgrabbers “flourishing” due to deficiencies within the system .
The prime minister praised judge of the Islamabad supreme court Justice Athar Minallah for his “fantastic judgements” which he said were important for society and therefore the environment, saying that he had helped the govt in preserving Islamabad’s green areas.
“It has become a national necessity that we keep our country green, save our surroundings and keep our rivers and air clean,” he emphasised.
