Judiciary Introduction

The responsibility of ensuring that rule of law is observed and actually enforced falls in practice upon the judicial department of the state. It is the judiciary upon which devolves the task of determining if any transgression of the law has occurred and, if so, of prescribing the necessary remedial action for correcting the wrong done. It is also the duty of the judiciary to review legislative and administrative action in order to ensure that the legislative measures that have been enacted or administrative action taken are in conformity with fundamental rights, constitution and the law. This is also true in case where a citizen claims that such action have violated any of his/her legal rights. Based on this premise the superior courts not only act as an arbiter (writ jurisdiction”) between citizen and the state, but also keep a watch over the acts of the legislature and the executive through judicial and constitutional reviews. Under Article 37 (d) of the Constitution of Pakistan, the provision of inexpensive and expeditious justice is a state obligation. Speedy justice is universally accepted as an important concomitant of the rule of law. Yet inefficiency, delay and corruption in courts are the main problems that an ordinary citizen faces in everyday life. On a regional index of the efficiency of judiciary on a sale of 0-10, Pakistan has been rated (5), below Bangladesh (6), Sri Lanka (7) and India (8).’

The system does not hold anyone accountable for such delays, and a citizen, as consumer of justice, cannot claim any damages for the time, energy and resources gone into years of litigation. Likewise, nobody is held responsible nor any compensation given to under-trial prisoners for the years spent in custody until they are finally found innocent by the court. An accused being “presumed innocent until proven guilty”, even though universally recognized as a fundamental principle in the administration of justice, is often disregarded in Pakistan. In a highly shocking case that recently came to light, Afzal Haider, a 23 years old law student spend 18 years in custody proving ‘innocent’ in falsely implicated criminal cases at the behest of an SHO interested in his fiancé-until his release from Karachi Central Jail at the age of forty-one in January 2005. No one has been held accountable for wrongfully forfeiting 18 years of his freedom, and his entire youth, that he had to spend behind bars across the country.”

Judicial delays have shattered people’s faith in the justice system, which they can no longer look upon as the ultimate guardian of their rights and interests. Notably, the existing system does not recognize delay’ as a justifiable and somehow comestible public grievance. Such chronic problems in justice sector can only be overcome through overhauling of the entire system. The existing judicial system, nonetheless, seeks to redress some of the citizens’ grievances through the following administrative and monitoring mechanisms.