1. Foreword

2. Preface

3. Table of Contents

Foreword

When I heard that almost all of my judgements I rendered ever since my elevation until now have been bound together, I felt embarrassed and even feared that this might expose inconsistency in my views I held from time to time.

  I with a overwhelming sense of gratitude, bow my head to Almighty Allah Who out of His infinite bounty enabled me to remain consistent as far as it was humanly possible. Somewhere change may have occurred but that was necessitated due to change in the views held by the august Supreme Court. Some of the judgements have even been reviewed when and where an error was patent and palpable. In any case I tried my utmost to maintain transparency in the process. 

Be all that as it may, the effort of Mr. Qamar Sohail Lodhi merits a word of tribute. It was not an effort simpliciter  but indefatigable as well. It was also unprecedented as this has never been done in the past. There has not been any pick and choose in this process. Whatever I thought, considered and decided as a judge, has been brought forth in an unedited form. Whether I could acquit myself as a judge or not is for the readers to decide, but Mr. Qamar Sohail Lodhi acquitted himself and honorably so by compiling this work.

 Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan,
Chief Justice,
2nd November, 2011.

Preface

Being inspired by the resolve of the honorable Chief Justice for administration of justice about which his lordship said:

“There can be no short cut to success. Courage, competence, honesty and hard work are the keys thereto… You cannot be just in your decision unless you know the law. You cannot know the law unless you work hard. Competence is not a virtue, which can be had like a finished good from a shop. It can be acquired by constant, consistent and continuous hard work.”;

being faithful to the dictates of the Constitution as enunciated in Article 201 which enjoin that subject to Article 189, any decision of a High Court shall, to the extent that it decides a question of law or is based upon or enunciates a principle of law, be binding on all courts subordinate to it;

being conscious of our responsibility to abide by the decisions of the superior courts and dedicated to the achievement of our cherished goal of inexpensive and expeditious dispensation of justice for all, and the rulings that there is no distinction, whatsoever, between reported and unreported judgments of the superior Courts for their legal efficacy on the question of law which they decide; and

in view of the guiding principles on binding effects of precedents on the benches of the High Court, requiring: that earlier judgment of a Division Bench of High Court on same point was binding upon subsequent Division Bench of the same High Court.          ( 2003 P.Cr.L.J 319) and that Previous decision of High Court has to be accepted by said High Court as binding.( 2001 CLC 185 (C),

the a pilot initiative of compiling 1000 plus judgments of  Mr. Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, honorable the Chief Justice Peshawar High Court, delivered from the year 2000 to 2011 has been completed from the available computerized records of this court; however, the manually type-written judgments delivered by his lordship during the years 2000 to 2003 and such other judgments of which the computerized records are not available, shall be published subsequently.

A subject index of the said judgments has been prepared to facilitate the readers. A soft copy of the publication is being uploaded on the official website of the Peshawar High Court, (www.peshawarhighcourt.gov.pk) with intimation to all the concerned to have free of cost access to the said judgments.

It is expected that the subject exercise would be continued, by establishing a Research and Reference Cell in the Peshawar High Court, Peshawar, to have an automated research and reference facility to assist the Bench and Bar at the High Court as well as Subordinate Courts level to promote consistency, certainty, stability and predictability in application and interpretation of laws. It may be added here that this first ever historic pilot initiative was completed by utilizing the existing institutional resources, particularly the Computer Branch of the High Court, with zero extra cost

.

Qamar Sohail Lodhi
Secretary to hon’ble Chief Justice/
District & Sessions Judge
2nd November, 2011