He said more than 0.2 million cases would have been decided if there had been no strikes on the part of lawyers, dispelling the impression that judges were not working diligently. He said 3,840 strikes took place in just 10 months, adding to the backlog of cases.
Shah called on lawyers to have their grievance redressed through talks. The office-bearers of lawyers' associations should meet him to get their legitimate complaints addressed, he offered. Probably, lawyers were unhappy with him for bringing improvement in the judicial system, he opined. The chief justice said whoever misbehaves with judges will be punished. He called upon the lawyers community to play its role in strengthening the institution, saying they can fix the system together.
He lamented that there was a single judge for every 62,000 people in the province. If there will be 10,000 judges in the province, we will be able to catch up the judicial systems of the developed countries, he added. Taking notice of the media reports about illegal promotions of judges, the chief justice clarified that no judge was promoted in violation of merit.