A million more

The honourable judges of the Supreme Court have expressed their opinion on the issue of the 1.9 million pending cases in Pakistan’s court system. Making a strong observation during the hearing of a civil case recently, Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said that the blame for the backlog does not lie squarely with the judiciary. Pointing to the fact that almost 25 percent of seats in the judiciary are vacant, the CJ said that filling the positions would considerably reduce the backlog within a year or two. It is clear that failure to fill these vacant positions is that of the government. The court observed that only 3,000 judges and magistrates cannot serve the needs of a population of 220 million people. There is little doubt that judges in Pakistan are overloaded with cases. For example, the SC concluded 26,000 cases last year, compared to the American Supreme Court which decided around 90 cases. While the difference in figures has much to do with the different responsibilities that lie with both courts, it does mean that the Pakistani SC is overloaded with cases. Some of the responsibility lies with the court itself for taking on a larger chunk of suo-motu cases, but the court would (perhaps justifiably) respond that it would not need to if the government were doing its job.One must wonder, however, where the blame lies for the many stories of cases being stuck in the judicial backlog for decades. There would need to be a serious reform of the kind of legal framework which allows for such delays to take place. In the last year alone, 3.1 million cases were decided in Pakistan. This would translate into each judge alone rendering over 1,000 judgments each year. This means that the judiciary is doing its job, but the court faces an impossible task to get rid of the judicial backlog.Justice Khosa had gone into more detail regarding this issue earlier, when he had talked about the need for larger structural changes to minimise litigation, eliminate delays and rationalise the workload as well as the need to redesign or restructure the entire judicial system. This is a question that has not been addressed seriously, partly due to past unwillingness within the judiciary. However, if the current CJ is ready to steer judicial change, then it is time for the government to take up the offer. Whether that means reducing the four-tier judiciary system to three-tiers and ending all special courts as the CJ proposed or something else will have to be sorted out. But the need for judicial reform is clear.

from The News International - Editorial https://ift.tt/2To2Rr0