Mediocrity mars outgoing judicial year

Almost akin to the superior judiciary, the sessions, civil, family, and magistrate courts of the district attracted a great deal of attention by actively calling the shots throughout 2022 in disputes of political, criminal and civil nature.

However, the rising backlog of cases, incessant strikes and dearth of judges impeded the delivery of justice across the district.

A bird's eye view of the judicial calendar reveals that the courts sentenced 26 criminals to death, around 12 to life imprisonment and slapped some 210 criminals with punishments ranging from one month to 14 years. 

These verdicts were pronounced in cases involving murder, robbery, gang rape, kidnapping, and sexual assault. The subordinate courts imposed total fines to the tune of over Rs38 million besides acquitting 361 accused. 

Some of the high-profile cases that kept the district judiciary in the limelight included the case arising from the brutual murder of a US citizen named Wjiha Swati over a dispute involving billions of rupees the cold-blooded murder of a woman and her 1.5 year old child with a sharp object for not giving in after rape, and the killing of a 13 year old girl after the failure of a raping bid.

Other than these heartwrenching cases, the lower judiciary left no stone unturned in imitating the superior one by pronouncing bold verdicts in cases of political nature.

Around 22 political activists - some of the well-known of whom included Captain (retd) Muhamad Safdar, PML-N stalwart Hanif Abbasi, Sardar Naseem, Malik Abrar, Maqbool Ahmed Khan - were acquitted in riot and vandalism cases by the courts.

Currently, in Rawalpindi's subordinate courts, around 200,000 cases are being heard.

There are at least 80 sessions, civil, family and magistrate judges, working in the district of Rawalpindi.

Other than this, the law and order landscape painted a gloomy picture throughout the year with a total of 81 cases of rape of minors and 101 cases of forced rape of female students reported in 33 police stations of Rawalpindi during the period of January 1 to December 25, 2022.

In cases of rape involving 31 women and 17 children, out-of-court settlements were struck which reflected the notoriously inefficient and crumbling justice system of the country.

Moreover, the subordinate judiciary of all the 36 districts of Punjab province faces a backlog of 1.4 million cases, which is the highest in the history of the province.