Nov 19, 2021
LAHORE
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed will be inaugurating the two-day Asma Jahangir Conference 2021 here on Saturday.
The participation of senior judges of the superior judiciary is going to be a prominent feature of the AJConf21. Justice Qazi Faez Isa, a Supreme Court judge known for his uncompromising takes on legal questions, is also going to attend the same session where his chief justice will be the star speaker.
Chief justices of the Lahore and Islamabad high courts, Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Justice Athar Minallah, will also grace the session.
This will be a unique occasion for so many top minds of the judiciary gathering at one single platform to address the problems faced along the journey to a just and pro-people society.
The judiciary’s role in resolving these issues has been highlighted not least by some of the questions recently raised about the balance between the parliament and courts and parliament and other institutions.
The unprecedented lineup of these senior judges is going to be joined by the senior members of the bar and envoys of foreign missions in Islamabad on a push to explore new ideas urgently needed and old positions that are required to be reinforced for a quick turnaround of the situation in the country.
Ahsan Bhoon, President of Supreme Court Bar Association, Khushdil Khan, Vice Chairman, Pakistan Bar Council, and Ali Ahmed Kurd, former SCBA president will address the conference.
Androulla Kaminara, Ambassador of the European Union to Pakistan, Wouter Plomp, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Pakistan, Wendy Gilmour, Canadian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Dr. Philipp Deichmann, Deputy of Ambassador of Germany to Pakistan, Christian Turner, British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Knut Ostby, Resident Representative of UNDP Pakistan, and Dr Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General, Amnesty International, will speak in the inaugural session on Saturday.
The inaugural session is going to open the gates to a series of sessions bringing together famous scholars from various areas.
The conference in the name of a campaigner for the marginalised as fierce as Asma Jahangir will include discussions on topics known to generate an intense search for solutions.
Women are going to be a recurring theme at the conference as will be the state of the economy the average Pakistani is troubled by and the situation in a fast-unravelling Afghanistan and a Kashmir that has been subjected to ever newer tools of exploitation.
In Saturday’s session on ‘Victim Blaming & the Hard Road’, Justice Ali Baqar Najafi Justice of the Lahore High Court will share his thoughts on the important issue. Other panellists include Vrinda Grover, lawyer and human rights activist from India, Nighat Dad, Director, Digital Rights Foundation, Rukshanda Naz Ombudsperson Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
As proof of the commitment by the organisers, Asma’s law firm AGHS— and a group of sponsors of the conference, not missing from the list will be the detainees and prisoners who suffer hardship at the hands of authorities.
The conference will end on Sunday evening. The conference will be shared live on the social media platforms of Voicepk.
