Independent judiciary vital for democracy: President
Staff Report

RAWALPINDI—President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said he is a strong believer in an independent and strong judiciary which strengthens democratic institutions, ensures good governance and brings about stability to the country.
Talking to Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry the President assured the Chief Justice of all-out support to strengthen the apex Court in its working and appreciated the efforts of the Supreme Court on taking measures to provide speedy justice.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan presented three reports to President General Pervez Musharraf including; Report of the apex Court of Pakistan for the year 2005-2006, Annual Report of Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan and a book on National Judicial Conference. The Chief Justice briefed the President on working of the Supreme Court and said a number of measures have been taken to dispose of cases expeditiously. He informed the President about the special benches constituted in this regard.
He said that 70 percent of pending cases were decided by 30th June. The total number of pending cases on July 1, 2005 was 25,808 and other 12,331 cases were filed, till June 30 this year, raising the pendency to 38,139 of which a total number of 23,353 cases were decided decreasing the pendency of cases to 1631 by November 30. The record disposal was achieved due to the hard work of Judges of the apex court, he added.
The Chief Justice said it has been the endeavour of the apex court to address the problem of backlog that has accumulated over time to provide inexpensive and speedy justice. He informed the President about the various administrative and logistic problems being faced for the accommodation of Judges Chambers and staff.
The President said that necessary steps will be taken for construction of additional blocks and provision of funds. The report has also been posted at the Supreme Court website www.supremecourt.gov.pk
President General Pervez Musharraf has directed the ministry of industries, production and special initiatives to complete the installation of water filtration plants on fast track basis.
He held this while presiding over a meeting here Saturday. The president said that most of the diseases are water born while the government has earmarked eight billion rupees for the filtration plant project that would ensure supply of safe drinking water to the people.
He directed the ministry to speed up the pace of installation of plants at the grass root levels and instructed that the filtration plants should be installed in high-density population centers enabling the maximum number of people to have access to clean drinking water.
Earlier Federal Minister for Industries and Special Initiatives Jahangir Khan Tareen informed the meeting that over 6000 filtration plants would be established across the country by the end of 2007 adding that a 13-member National Task Force has been set up to ensure timely implementation of the project.
The government is taking all decisions purely on merit basis and above personal liking and disliking keeping national interest supreme, said President Pervez Musharraf. He expressed these remarks at a ceremony hosted by the federal secretaries in his honor here on Saturday. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was also present on the occasion.
He said that Pakistan was a crisis-hit and scattered country seven years ago where all decisions had been taken in line with political and personal interest instead of public and national ones. “But now, future of Pakistan is bright and the country is on the road to progress,” he added.