As you climb a few steps to get to the first floor of the two-storey red-bricked Gulbahar City police station, a sizeable number of people are seen waiting outside a small room. Some anxiously wait for their turn standing, while few hold a cigarette in a reclined position to the iron-grill.

The scene is not much different from the one outside a courtroom in the Judicial Complex of Peshawar. The difference is that the visitors don’t have to wait long here for their turn. More importantly, both plaintiff and defendant need no lawyer. They speak for themselves.

This is the dispute resolution council (DRC), an alternate dispute resolution mechanism launched by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police early this year to help resolve petty disputes, mostly of civil nature, amicably through a free and speedy procedure.

Once a dark room lying useless and sometimes used to interrogate suspects, now this well-furnished room equipped with the latest facilities is a comfortable and secure place to speak about family matters as well as land and monetary disputes and seek their speedy, free and amicable resolution.

The concept was introduced by current inspector general of police Nasir Khan Durrani. The establishment of the DRC at the Gulbahar City police station was a pilot project, which is to be extended to other districts.

At the dispute resolution council, Peshawar, formed to help resolve petty disputes through a free and speedy procedure, community members act as a jury. Chosen from civil society, they volunteer to hear disputing parties in the presence of two assisting officials from the police department.

Few sittings in the DRC jury room where one case after another was heard revealed that not only men but women, too, came forth to seek the help of the body.

Many so-called empowered women would think many times before going to a police station with a complaint or get access to justice due to the prevailing stereotyped perception of the ‘thana culture’ about the police station, which is a male dominant place like courts. Yet, the DRC receives many women plaintiffs, also.

Clad in a black all enveloping burqa, 17-year-old Tahira had come to the police station along with her mother, who was almost invisible in a brown ‘shuttlecock’ burqa. Yet the hopes that they had attached to the DRC were very much visible.Tahira, who got married at 14 and was a mother of a child, was seeking help from the DRC to trace her husband. While her in-laws blamed his disappearance on her, she was sure he had gone to his parents leaving her for no good reason. Though it’s entirely a family matter, yet this young uneducated girl came to the DRC as she had no other means to have access to justice.

The community members act as a jury. Chosen from the civil society, they volunteer to hear the disputing parties in the presence of two assisting officials from the police department. Two women lawyers are also included in the 21 members of the DRC but more are needed as more cases of women with disputes of family nature come to the council.

“We need participants from other gender,” said Superintendent of Police at the Gulbahar City police station Dr Mustafa Tanveer, who is also the focal person.

He said more housewives and working women needed to volunteer as DRC jury member since they could easily relate to the women’s issues.

However, Noor Mohammad, a senior jury member, who was hearing Tahira’s case, said the women’s issues were of serious and rather complicated nature.

“We are very considerate of their situation, so we try to resolve their disputes in a speedy manner. At the most, we resolve it after three hearings,” he said.

“Our case was heard by the civil court for almost 17 years but then, we couldn’t pursue it as we had no money. We have come here with a great hope,” said one of the four sisters fighting a case against two of their brothers for share in property left by father.

Four sisters, all clad in white chaddar, who are residents of Peshawar city, were quiet in the beginning of the hearing as their brother spoke of his money woes.

With the encouragement of the jury members hearing the case, one of the sisters spoke how they were unable to get their due share in property left by father.

The jury assured them of resolving the matter in two or three sittings if they agreed to put their trust in the jury. The aged sisters, looking tired of the lengthy legal procedures and their current financial position, immediately said yes to go on with the proceedings.

Senior lawyer and jury member Zulfiqar Khalil said process at the DRC was speedy and free so it saved not only the people’s time but also their money.

“Our grandparents and parents have heard free and speedy justice system but never saw it in their lifetime. I think this is the system, which is very close to what they were talking about,” he said.

Fareed Khan, an ASI of the police, who has been assisting the jury for seven months, said he used his investigative powers like a magic to resolve disputes and find out who was at fault.

“The way the disputes are resolved here is also going to bring good name for the police as community interacts here with the police,” he said.

SP City Mustafa Tanveer said the DRC was nothing like the Musalihati Anjuman constituted under the Local Government 2001, where the nazim or local politicians would use their influence in its constitution and working.

“The police are only there to facilitate the jury members to work within the ambit of the law. We do not interfere or influence its decisions on disputes,” he said.

The official said the jirga was hijacked by some traditional mediators, so their role had been ended in a way.

The SP said the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who had suffered so much due to terrorism, needed a gift from the police department.

While the resolution of petty disputes has a buy-in from the community making them acceptable and sustainable, it frees up the law-enforcement authorities like courts and the police that have been swamped with petty cases, which can otherwise be resolved amicably by the disputing parties with support from the authorities.

In a province that has been wrecked up by terrorism in the recent years, dispute resolution the community way will allow courts and the police to focus on cases of terrorism and restoration of law and order.

Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014