As a legal maxim goes, ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. Unfortunately, in its country long delays are normality rather than an aberration. According to the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan’s (NJPC) statistics, as of November 30, 2017, as many as 1,873,085 cases were pending in various superior and subordinate courts. Litigation, especially in civil suits, can take up to two decades, or more, to be settled. In an extreme example a few days ago, the apex court announced its verdict in a 100-year-old case of property dispute. Given the situation there can be no two opinions on that the justice system is deeply flawed, and needs to be fixed.

The good news is that the National Judicial Policymaking Committee headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has finally taken a serious notice of the massive backlog of cases, issuing a number of important guidelines to check delays. As per the new rules, the district judiciary is to deliver judgements within 30 days and the high courts within three months of conclusion of arguments; the courts would discourage rehearing of case; rent, succession and other such cases are to be decided in six months time; and stay order cases are also be decided within six months. The NJPC also recommended that disputes of general nature should be settled through cost-effective and efficient alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. As important as these measures are, the NJPC’s effort alone will not help. A lot more needs to be done to create conditions conducive to the administration of speedy justice.

In the present charged political atmosphere, particularly the increasing frequency with which the Supreme Court has been taking suo motu notices of various governmental shortcomings, critics have been pointing to the vast accumulation of pending case to argue the judiciary is ignoring its primary responsibility. It is unfair though to lay the entire blame on the judiciary. True, as the NPJC’s guidelines show the judges can improve efficiency, but they also need the necessary wherewithal for speedy dispensation of justice. The CJP has been pointing out on some previous occasions that the number of judges is vastly disproportionate to the cases with the result that on average they have only a few minutes to hear each case. Then the laws are antiquated going back to the British colonial era. And the standards of investigation and prosecution are far from satisfactory. All of these factors affect both the efficacy and speed of justice. It is imperative therefore that government appoint the required number of judges at all levels, also enhancing the investigators’ capabilities. And Parliament needs to amend the old laws in consonance with present-day realities. It is time the executive and Parliament fulfilled their respective responsibilities.