Islamabad:
Islamabad High Court (IHC) Judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan has expressed serious reservations about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in litigation warning that “robot judges will always remain subordinates to their programmers”.
In a letter addressed to Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar – of which a copy was also circulated among all IHC judges – Justice Ejaz raised fundamental concerns about the consequences of AI -assisted justice and argued that such systems lack capacity for moral reasoning and independence.
“The opponents of artificial intelligence technology believe it is a programmable system,” he wrote. “Therefore, robotic judges will always remain subordinates for their programmers. Their decisions will be in line with the codes that are brought into them.”
Justice Ejaz observed that computers or robots “do not have the ability to form independent opinions or deliver judgments in line with the truth”.
He added that although he did not previously shared these reservations, on the September 3rd court meeting on the issue of the issue had changed his perspective.
“In the past, I did not agree with this view,” he noted, “but after the full hearing on September 3, my attitude has come closer to the critics.”
The judge also approved the views of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, who had previously expressed similar concerns about the judiciary’s adoption of AI tools.
The full hearing, chairman of Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar, had primarily discussed practice and procedural rules as well as establishment rules approved by a majority. Justice Ejaz was among the five judges who opposed the rules.
