1.8 million court cases pending across country

Secretary Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan Dr Rahim Awan has said that 1.8 million cases are pending with the courts including apex court to lower judiciary. He said the main reason behind delay in judgments is the lesser number of the judges. He said 23 posts of judges are lying vacant in the superior judiciary where total strength is 167 but 146 judges are serving. Similarly, Lahore High Court's total sanctioned posts of judges are 60, but 49 judges, are performing duties, presently.
According to the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, all over the world, the judges' numbers in proportion to the population is much better than Pakistan where 12 judges are available for a population of one million people, as compared to 18 judges for one million people in India. He said if it is compared with the western countries; there are 51 judges for 1 million people in Britain, in Canada: 75 judges, USA: 107 judges for one million people.
The LJCP report said there were only 938 judges had decided one million civil and family cases in Punjab in 2017. Dr Rahim said that the issue of pending cases would become more problematic if the number of judges was not increased. He said there should be 2000 judges so that one judge disposes of 500 cases in a month.
Constitutional expert Raza Ali said it could not be denied that the lesser number of judges are the main reason of pending cases. He said the lawyers' community also causes pending of cases. He said their boycott call is one of the main reasons of the delay in decision of the cases.
As many as 38,143 cases were pending in the top court on January 31, 2018. Similarly, in high courts of all the provinces and Islamabad, 298,142 cases were pending. Of them150,573 cases pending in the Lahore High Court; the Sindh High Court 94,325 cases; Peshawar High Court 30,800 cases; the Balochistan High Court 6,030 cases and Islamabad High Court 16,414 cases awaited decisions. In the district judiciary the 1,520,485 cases yet to be decided. In Punjab 1,168,782 cases, Sindh 96,301; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 204,456, Balochistan 12,977 and Islamabad 37,969 cases were pending.