How You are Judged by a Judge in Pakistan

It is quite interesting actually how people judge you in everyday life. They can’t really judge but actually project their own thoughts, their way of thinking, somewhat show their own personality, where they have come from, family background and the place and environment where they were born and brought up.

One of my friend is a lawyer, he told me an interesting story the other day, there was a family law suit, the divorced had commenced, both parties were living separately, they had a kid, the minor was living with her mother, the women had filed a long law suit including maintenance for minor plus recovery of her dowry articles and etc. it was a usual family law suit, where women exaggerates huge about their dowry to get more and more out of their broken marriage, anyhow… the judge has to decide the interim maintenance allowance for the minor till the law suit is decided. It was a female judge. The judge calls the father of the minor, he appeared in front of the judge, the judge observed him with her judgment, and fixed the maintenance allowance of 10k per month. It was a quite handsome amount for him, especially as it was interim. He went to his lawyer and asked him to request the judge on his behalf to please decrease the amount, as it is too much to start with, the judge must encourage him and not to punish him in the start without inquiring about his financial status and responsibilities. The plea was genuine so the lawyer appeared in the court and requested for the revision…

The judge replied, here quote, “Can’t you see the dress he is wearing, so neat & clean and ironed, and smart phone he is holding is his hand, and look at his confidence, he can definitely pay this amount, it is nothing for him.”

The lawyer wasn’t prepared for this kind of reaction from the judge, plus there were other lawyers waiting for their turn to speak for their cases, so he came back clueless what to comment about judge’s reply and how to calm his client. —- In fact, the reality of the father of the minor was that he used to work in a freight forwarding company; he dressed up nicely for two reasons, first to create a good first impression in front of the judge, but mainly because after his court attendance he has to go to his workplace looking prepared and ready to work. And the smart phone he was holding, was given by the company with an internet enabled so they can reach him whenever they want and he can update the shipping & cargo data online, promptly and regularly for their clients. His total pay was 30k with no extra allowance. He had both parents back home and a younger sibling to look after. And the judge without inquiring about any of these details fixed one third of his salary as “interim amount”. The boy was fixed to be a defaulter in this law suit.

Another friend of mine narrated another story, he and his friend went to visit a practicing judge in his house. His friend had some official work with judge sahib so he went with him as logistic support. While they were talking about their actual work, my friend was thinking about his own law suit, considering an opportunity, he was looking for them to finish their discussion so that he can ask his question from the respected judge sahib (forgot to mention that my friend had a family law suit which he had won partially but was aggrieved with monthly maintenance allowance of 15k which he considered difficult to handle), as soon as they concluded their discussion, he with the permission first, rolled out his question about the maintenance amount etc., the judge sahib asked him about his source of income and net amount income. He explained the source of income and stated the net income between 35k to 40k…

The judge sahib immediately interrupted “You are not telling the truth, I judge your net income is 70k or more.”
He asked the judge sahib “Sir how have you evaluated this figure?”
The judge sahib replied, “I can see that you a wearing a nice piece of jacket, looks expensive.”
He replied, “Oh yes Sir, it is a nice jacket, but I haven’t bought it myself, it is a gift from my brother in law, he is in the business of readymade garments, he brought this from Lahore for himself but it is not perfectly fit to him so he gave it to me, and I’m happy about it.”
The judge sahib replied, “Oh I see, but still I can assume your financial status is very good by evaluating the quality of gifts you receive.”

He was speechless. — In fact, my friend was telling the truth, the jacket was really from his brother in law. It was made of some kind of water proof fabric, China made, bought from Shalmi Market Lahore at wholesale rate, there its worth between 1800 to 2200 Rupee. And he wore it on that particular day to look nice and decent because he was going to visit a practicing civil judge at his house, first time in life.

Tags: judges, judiciary, pakistan court, pakistan crisis, pakistan culture, social tips, society

Category: Social