LAHORE: President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry Almas Hyder said that justice cannot be ensured until it is conveniently dispensed on the doorsteps of the people living below the poverty line.
He was speaking at the annual function of Free Legal Aid Society for the Help Less (FLASH) here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. President FLASH Shahid Ikram Siddiqui, Sheikh Abdul Majeed and Asif Saeed also spoke on the occasion.
Almas Hyder said that justice for all can ensure a peaceful society. He said that the right of having access to justice is indeed a fundamental right that should easily be available to each and every citizen of Pakistan. But in real terms how many of them actually happen to become recipients of justice when they are in dire need of it? The rigors and inequities prevalent in our Society in reality, however, make the obtaining of justice extremely difficult in the real life situations that confront our citizens.
The LCCI president said that there is acute lack of financial resources that is an endemic fact of life in our country. This gets invariably coupled with the very wide spread ignorance that our citizens have in respect of legal procedure. This naturally gets further accentuated for sheer lack of proper legal assistance from legal experts and the inability of the accused/litigant to get the services of counsel due to financial restraints.
He lauded the efforts of Free Legal Aid Society for the Help Less (FLASH) for actively engaging in a broad spectrum of social welfare activities, particularly, for the weaker segments of the society.
President FLASH Shahid Ikram Siddiqui said that a large number of working for the welfare of the ailing humanity. Most of them work in areas the problems of which are witnessed nearly every day by almost everyone, e.g. poverty alleviation, education, health, water and sanitation, environment, human rights, women and children rights, consumer rights etc. Though absence of the right to access to justice is noticed in a few cases that are highlighted by the media for one reason or the other, yet the tail-enders of those rundown by inaccessibility to this right are the ones rotting behind the bars for indefinite time just because they do not have enough resources and/or awareness.
“Nonetheless, we hardly come across with such examples in our everyday life. Probably, that is why this most crucial issue fails to attract the attention of most of the philanthropists of the society. Recognizing and addressing this issue is exceedingly important, since it is concerned not only with a huge number of the destitute litigants but also bound to affect the present and future of their families and next generations. In order to meet the pressing social need of providing free legal aid to the disadvantaged, including the destitute prisoners, a vigorous initiative has always been needed”, he said and added that sensitizing the society about this burning issue may not be very easy as it is not expected to bring fame and riches for the doers, still it is something that would be most desirable in terms of true and pure philanthropy.
