Successive chief justices have said much regarding delays in cases it is unclear whether they had any tangible effect.
LAHORE: Rana Sajjad Ahmad’s eloquent piece of January 6 titled “The law for a bicycle and millions of dollars” gives readers a good look into how justice is dispensed — or not — in Pakistan. Of course, he has a degree from an Ivy League university and is able to write in an English newspaper, but what about the thousands of litigants who head every morning to the local courts — not just in Lahore but all over the country — only to be told that their case will not be heard and has been delayed yet again.
They lose their precious time and in many instances spend on transport to reach the courts, and return empty-handed. While successive chief justices have said much regarding delays in cases, it is unclear whether such pronouncements have had any tangible effect on ground realities. Perhaps, this is something that newspapers such as yours should investigate: as in, has there been any noticeable improvement in the time period that it takes for a typical civil case to be heard to its logical end in Pakistan? The result of an exhaustive survey to ascertain this may be revealing.
Nadia Ismail
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2012.
