EDITORIAL: Alas speedy disposal of cases, the most basic requirement of any legal system, is something that our judiciary has never really been able to ensure. And despite all sorts of talk about reforms every now and then, including increasing the number of courts and judges and all that, the problem just keeps growing. It seems everybody knows what to do, and government after government instructs the law ministry to implement the right plans, but the ball just doesn't get rolling. Even the more proactive chief justices, who have sought to put just about everything under the sky right, failed to make much of a mark in terms of improving the efficiency of their own institution. Meanwhile, crimes are committed up and down the country forcing more people to seek legal recourse all the time and then wait endlessly for their cases to finish, which can and does sometimes take generations. It's as if the legal community no longer even cares that it has long since abandoned one of its own most basic principles, that justice delayed is justice denied. If that can be used as anything of a benchmark then a vast majority of people seeking justice at any point in time in this country are simply denied it.
The Supreme Court has taken a step in the right direction and, in a written order issued on Thursday, directed accountability courts to hear cases on a day-to-day basis without any adjournments and ensure that all evidence is concluded expeditiously. But, welcome as this order is, it does beg the question of why our courts still continue to grant adjournments in cases when this practice is not used anywhere else in the world. India and Pakistan are probably the only countries that still hold on to it for some reason and the result is clear for everybody to see since both suffer from the same problem of cases dragging on forever because of the influence some lawyers are able to exercise over some judges. The only purpose it really seems to serve is protecting the monopoly of a bunch of lawyers. There are endless examples, including the country's top firms, where a handful of lawyers are made to handle thousands of cases. They can go prepared for a hundred of them on any given day yet they'd be lucky if even five are heard. Unfortunately, such is the state that the country's legal system has fallen to yet those that make the big decisions have still not thought it necessary to scrap the privilege of adjournment.
Why shouldn't our courts follow international best practices? In almost the entire world first a case management plan is prepared, then the entire case is heard and the judgement is reserved before proceeding to the next one. Pakistan has had numerous examples of notable judges who always came prepared, heard cases thoroughly without granting any adjournments, and never added to the embarrassing backlog. We must keep pace with the times. Pakistan can no longer afford loopholes in the legal system that people can exploit so easily to influence justice delivery. It is the state's duty to ensure prompt justice and since legal reforms have become inevitable, this is as good a point as any to start.
The prime minister has been telling anybody who would listen that a robust judiciary was central to a progressive state since well before he won the election. As such under him the law ministry was expected to be far more proactive in terms of reforms than before. The Supreme Court, for its part, must now expand the scope of this decision beyond just accountability courts. Most people are already quite disillusioned. Shrinking wages, rising unemployment and sky-rocketing prices have pushed just about everybody right to the edge. In these times lack of access to timely justice, and the fact that the government is not doing much about this problem, might just knock many of them over it. Hopefully, all relevant offices, all the way right to the very top, will treat this matter according to the importance and urgency it deserves. At stake, after all, is one of the most fundamental rights of all citizens of the state.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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