Pakistan’s judicial system is famous for its inefficient and slow handling of cases.
In a report, some lawyers took data from the Karachi trial courts to consider why the cases brought into courts were so often delayed. Pakistan’s judicial system has harvested disrepute for its inefficient management and delays in case proceedings. According to a report, 44 percent of the filed cases in courts took more than five years to be resolute. The justice system in our country is so slow that usually, people avoid taking their cases to the courts and solve them by mutual understanding. At times, someone’s turn comes after their death. Our overpopulated jails are a simple example of our slow judicial system because individuals under trial are usually made to suffer in jails for years before their case is decided or heard. As a result, the judiciary becomes overburdened and people lose their faith in the system of justice.
The ongoing prevailing system of governance in the country is both oppressive and exploitative due to the fact that it excessively rewards the elite with extreme economic benefits at the expenditure of the poor by going against the orders and principles of Islam and a welfare state, which call for the relocation of capital from the rich to the poor. Moreover, the judicial system is not up to the mark in our country as it denies justice to the feeble against the unlawful excesses of the influentials in the society who can practically get away with murder.
It is the need of the hour to rectify the condition and make sure that our country turns into an Islamic welfare state in its true sense where social oppression and economic exploitation comes to an end, allowing the oppressed to lead their lives with self-respect, and realize their potential. All of these things can be done by an effective and timely lawful system where everyone can ask for their rights. It is only done if the cases are solved on time and more truthful and honest judges are added to our judicial system.
Justice Gulzar Ahmad has been appointed as the 27th Chief Justice of Pakistan. With his appointment, there are expectations that he will play a vital positive role in making things better. The former chief justice (Justice Asif Saeed Khosa), accomplished a lot during his tenure of less than a year. During his tenure, the judiciary settled some 73,000 trials besides setting of a large number of criminal cases, awaiting since 1994, in which majority of the cases were filed by the poor and the weak of our society. Now, people are looking at respected Justice Gulzar to play his role in improving the system. Also, a matter concerned with the Punjab judicial system, the new chief justice of Lahore High Court is a competent personality) and he has the strength to make the judicial system more trusted for the nation.
Recently, a painful incident happened in Hafizabad court where three handcuffed accused were killed and two were injured by the firing of their rival in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Mian Nadeem Anjum during hearing of a case. There was an old hatred between the Jutt group and the Rajput group at Winni town. The day the incident happened, when police presented five handcuffed accused of Rajput group in the court room, their rival Jutt group’s Sufian Jutt apparently opened fire on them. As a result, accused Rashid, Nadeem, Waseem, were killed on the spot while the other two were injured. After that, the suspect surrendered to the police along with his accomplice. It is worth stating that several policemen were deployed at the gate of the Judicial Complex, but no one checked the suspects. Consequently, the security system was not according to standard and sufficient enough to protect the people.
After seeing this game of terror, the honorable Judge took two days of leave due to mental stress. With the reference to this case, I want to mention that this is not the only incident happened in Punjab last month. Same incident happened in Dipalpur, Phalia Mandibahauddin, and Jaranwala. The concern is if there were walk through gates, then an incident like this could be stopped. The increasing pace of cases like these needs to be stopped. The chief justice of Lahore High Court should enhance the security of the judges as well as courts in Punjab. If judges will remain horrified, how will they be able to provide instant justice?
Another big miserable issue is the transfer and posting of judges in Punjab. Lahore domicile holders have been transferred between 400 to 500kms far from their home cities. Although, the transfer tenure consists on two to three years. In this concern, the judges have to face odds regarding the admission of their children after every three years. The latest posting was of around 173 judges by chief justice LHC and with this pressure and tension, how can they offer their exceptional services towards humanity with their children’s futures in the dark. Their one-day travel bound them to take a leave for one day. In these scenarios, they cannot save public, by only working for 210 or 220 days. Due to being posted far from their homes, they cannot work effectively and efficiently, while citizens suffer as well. It is the need of the hour that chief justice of LHC should take a serious notice of these transfers and improve the judicial system. The elite class of the society counting high ranking officers, senior politicians, lawyers, the civilian bureaucracy, and feudal landlords, are collectively responsible for the unhappy state of affairs.
