Islamabad:
Islamabad High Court (IHC) Judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan has expressed serious reservations about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in court proceedings, warning that “robot judges will always remain subordinate to their programmers”.
In a letter addressed to Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar, a copy of which was also distributed to all IHC judges, Justice Ejaz raised fundamental concerns about the implications of AI-assisted justice, arguing that such systems lack the capacity for moral reasoning and independence.
“Opponents of AI technology believe it is a programmable system,” he wrote. “Therefore, robot judges will always remain subordinate to their programmers. Their decisions will be in accordance with the codes fed to them.”
Judge Ejaz observed that computers or robots “do not have the capacity to form independent opinions or deliver judgments aligned with the truth.”
He added that while he did not previously share these reservations, the full September 3 judicial meeting on the issue had altered his perspective.
“In the past, I disagreed with this view,” he noted, “but after the full court convened on September 3, my position has moved closer to that of the critics.”
The judge also endorsed the views of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, who had earlier expressed similar apprehensions regarding the judiciary’s adoption of AI tools.
The full court meeting, chaired by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar, had mainly discussed the rules of practice and procedure as well as the establishment rules, which were approved by a majority vote. Justice Ejaz was one of the five judges who opposed the rules.
