Burdened courts

ACCORDING to recent reports, the new chief justice has set about implementing a recently adopted plan for clearing the backlog of thousands of cases pending before the apex court. This Thursday, he formed several committees to devise a plan to clear some 60,000 pending cases, of which more than 3,000 pertain to revenue and taxation. A ‘diagnostic study’ is said to have been ordered, based on which medium- and short-term plans will be devised to reduce the backlog. A consolidated plan will then be presented for public debate, after which it will be implemented with timelines and an impact assessment mechanism. The flurry of activity is encouraging and, indeed, laudable; it is good to see the Supreme Court moving so quickly and with such determination to address one of the key objections raised by some quarters over its ‘inability’ to dispense timely justice. It seems that if its reform plans are implemented as envisioned, we may even see quick results. However, it is abundantly clear that the Supreme Court’s caseload is just a tiny part of the problem. In fact, the bulk of the backlog exists in the lower judiciary, where things are as dismal as they have ever been.
As anyone who has had the misfortune of having a run-in with the law will assert, the lower echelons of the Pakistani judicial system are mired in corruption, inefficiency, lack of due process, lack of regard for petitioners, and general dysfunction. The millions of ordinary citizens who must suffer our lower courts have not gained an iota’s worth of benefit from the government’s decision to upend the country’s judicial structure due to the Supreme Court’s building case backlog. A report earlier this year revealed that the pendency of cases at the district court level had touched 1.86m, accounting for 82pc of all pending cases in the Pakistani judicial system. According to the report issued in February, civil cases constitute 64pc of the pending cases in the district judiciary, while the remaining 36pc comprise criminal cases. Regrettably, in the two and a half years since the current regime took control of legislation, it has done nothing to address the problem. It is hoped that its depth of concern and alacrity for Supreme Court reforms will soon be transferred to the lower courts as well. The long-suffering people, too, deserve some consideration.
Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2024