THE perils of an inefficient judicial system are all too well known in Pakistan. Any individual or group that has to approach the courts knows that justice, if it is ever served, will be a long time coming. From the apex court to the lower judiciary, but especially in the latter, the backlog is massive, leading from time to time to concerted efforts to clear it. But it is not just a matter of the sluggishness with which cases, and the sheer numbers they constitute, make their way through the system; even after the conclusion of a trial, it is common for litigants to have to wait for months and sometimes even years for the judgement. Hence, the fact that the Supreme Court handed down a judgement on Thursday prescribing a time frame within which courts must deliver their verdicts should be taken as a positive step. As its author, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, noted, without this final step the entire judicial set-up is rendered illusionary. Litigants will no doubt feel some relief at the apex court’s directive that civil courts must deliver their judgements within 30 days of a trial’s conclusion, district courts within 45 days, and high courts within 90 days.

A step in the right direction though this may be, there is much else that remains to be done to reform the judiciary. The central fact is that the country’s court system is badly broken; from poor investigation to weak prosecution and overworked judges, there are a very large number of problems in the system and most will remain unaddressed as a result of Thursday’s judgement. There already exist directives within which several sorts of judicial forums must conclude a trial, but these are overwhelmingly breached. The situation is so dire that it has led the country into quagmires from which extrication appears difficult. Consider, for example, that during the late ’90s, in an effort to speed up the progress in certain serious offences, Anti-Terrorism Courts were set up bypassing the regular court system. A decade and a half later, given the backlog that has built up in the ATCs and the low conviction rate secured there, after the Army Public School massacre the government resorted to the deeply problematic decision of trying civilians in closed-door, military courts. Such clouds of illegitimacy can be avoided: effective steps need to be taken urgently to revive the presently moribund courts’ system.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2015

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