FEDERAL Cabinet at its meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday decided to set up special courts for overseas Pakistanis where their cases will be tried swiftly on a day to day basis.
The very step once again demonstrates the government’s commitment to extend facilitation to the overseas Pakistanis in every possible manner.
Given their immense contribution to the economy through remittances, they certainly deserve better attention and doing so definitely will help attract investment from them in different sectors.
Land grabbing and property disputes are major issues overseas Pakistanis face in their country.
While they are abroad, gangs or even their relatives take illegal possession of their land or houses, and their cases in normal courts drag on for decades.
Hence, the very constitution of special courts will help provide early relief to them as those employed or doing their business abroad cannot afford spending most of their time in the country for the purpose of litigation.
But having said so, it must also be recognized that speedy trial or early disposal of cases is also the right of every common Pakistani.
The fact is that the backlog, especially in the lower courts, is massive with decisions pending on hundreds of thousands of cases.
The reasons for this situation are numerous including frequent adjournments, lengthy trials and so on.
Cases are known to drag on for decades and, at times, litigants pass away whilst awaiting justice.
This is an unacceptable situation which only erodes the confidence of masses on the judiciary.
The government has brought some law reforms to ensure early disposal of cases, but this very objective can only be achieved by increasing the strength of judges.
There is a need to fix judge-case ratio.Several Law Reforms Commissions’ reports have recommended such ratio to be 500 cases to a Civil Judge and 450 cases to District & Sessions Judge.
Then the judicial officers of the subordinate judiciary should be offered better terms and conditions of service to induct more qualified persons into the judicial service.
