Needless to say, it is beyond any doubt that Pakistan needs a real and independent judiciary
ROMFORD, UK: Pakistan faces a range of profound governance and economic challenges to its development. In the past, the institutions of justice in the country were degraded and this has impaired the quality of judicial services. Pakistan has experienced unbalanced power structures and frequent changes in government, which has disturbed the judicial system which has, in turn, led to a loss of public confidence in the institutions of justice, despite the best efforts of many dedicated judges. This malaise is manifest in complex, related problems. Most notably, this includes a monstrous backlog existing throughout the courts with chronic delays in the disposal of cases, with litigation going on for years and years.
These problems, which are now deeply entrenched, require substantial long-term interventions to resolve. The endemic delays of the Pakistani court system are caused, in part, by chronic under-resourcing, but also by archaic and inefficient work practices. Under the Access to Justice Programme, a loan was provided by the Asian Development Bank, which was aimed at improving the quality of justice in the long term. The goal of the programme was to provide unprecedented resources to support the courts to administer justice in a fair, timely and cost-effective manner. In addition, initiatives have been taken to introduce continued on-job training for judges throughout the country in order to improve judicial competence. Four study tours were conducted for more than 30 judges and court administrators to other common law jurisdictions, including Britain, Canada, the US, Australia and Singapore under the Access to Justice Programme.
Needless to say, it is beyond any doubt that Pakistan needs a real and independent judiciary. The judiciary has accomplished many feats in recent years, but it is still a fact that there are no words strong enough to describe what hundreds of people going through the system feel. They feel they are fighting an impossible battle because the local police, responsible for delivering justice, and the judiciary, which is responsible for speeding up the legal process and honouring justice, are not always concentrating on their jobs, as defined by the Constitution of Pakistan. One wonders who is going to ensure transparency when even the most responsible institutions of the country try to evade the law using the law as a pretext. The judiciary should recognise its responsibility to speed up the judicial process and provide justice only on merit as per the Constitution of Pakistan without succumbing to so-called technicalities given under the Civil Procedure Code or the Criminal Procedure Code, which hardly appear in any way to be able to speed up the disposal of judicial cases pending in courts. People who have no influence and are seeking justice purely on merit deserve speedy justice without facing malpractices. The government and the chief justice are requested to save the citizens who have been struggling to find justice and spend their savings on paying huge fees to lawyers without receiving timely justice.
Nadeem Zia
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2015.
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