ISLAMABAD
\nSupreme Court Justice Athar Minallah on Saturday said social media should not influence judges, adding that if a judge is affected by it then they are violating their oath.
\nAddressing the second law bridge workshop on superior court reporting at a private hotel in Islamabad, Justice Minallah said if even critics trusted the court then it was a test of the judiciary. Everyone should criticise, but also trust the judiciary, he maintained.
\nReferring to the lack of freedom of speech in the country, the top court judge said the endless process of censor kicked off after the state\u2019s censoring Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah\u2019s August 11, 1947 speech.
\nReminiscing his first case as a judge, he said it was a bail plea and a 16-year-old suspect was before the court for putting up a banner against an apex court judge. The subordinate court rejected the plea saying he had committed a crime against the entire judiciary, he said adding that nobody tried to find out who got the banners made.
\nThe SC judge said Pakistan would not have been split into two, if the oath was not transgressed.
\nHe said the states could not control the expression of opinion in the technological era. However, he said the reporters doing vlogging have an economic interest too therefore they should maintain balance in their comments.
\nJustice Minallah said he did not consider himself worthy of telling a reporter what his ethics were.
\nHowever, he advised the journalists that revealing the identity of a child or woman or misreporting something was a violation of the journalism\u2019s ethics, he said adding that he learnt a great deal of journalism from court reporters.
\n\u201cWhen the matter of 18th constitutional amendment was raised, many forces were against it. A reporter asked me, what will the Supreme Court do about the 18th Amendment? I replied \u2018in my opinion, the SC should not interfere in the constitutional amendment\u2019,\u201d he said.
\nThe apex court judge said he had said he would resign if the 18th amendment was annulled and the next day news was published that \u201cAthar Minallah has threatened the court\u201d.
\nSenior lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan asked him to do something against the news, but he said no that\u2019s what he had said, he added.
\nCiting former Ugandan president and the modern world history\u2019s most brutal dictator, Idi Amin, Justice Minallah said, \u201cA society is ruined, if someone gags freedom of expression like Idi Amin.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Supreme Court Justice Athar Minallah on Saturday said social media should not influence judges, adding that if a judge is affected by it then they are violating their oath. Addressing the second law bridge workshop on superior court reporting at a private hotel in Islamabad, Justice Minallah said if even critics trusted the court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n