THE focus of the new Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa on the crucial issue of clearing a huge backlog of cases sparks confidence among people that the top court is going to review the highly flawed policy pursued by successive CJs to give more time and energy to high profile cases at the expense of dispensation of justice to the common man. True to his reputation of working with speed, the CJP convened a meeting of stakeholders on Wednesday to get their input on how to manage the backlog of cases.
Though fuller details of what exactly transpired in the meeting were not available, a Committee consisting of two judges of the apex court and representatives of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has been formed to come up with guidelines on how to clear a huge backlog of 57, 000 cases, speedy administration of justice and fixation and hearing of cases and it is hoped an elaborate and workable strategy would be firmed up for the purpose. Generally, it is believed that the shortage of judges is to be blamed for the pendency but the fact remains more cases are filed every year than those disposed of in the absence of any worthwhile case management system and timeline for disposal of cases. In the past, some attempts were made to introduce timeline but these were never adhered to by the judges themselves. While there is visible lack of interest on the part of judges to take the cases to the logical conclusion in a prompt manner, litigants and their counsels are also to be blamed for not extending necessary cooperation to conclude cases. It is shocking that cases remain undecided both in lower and higher judiciary not for years but also for decades, eroding confidence of the people in the justice system. There are reasons to believe that this erosion of trust leads to consequences like mob justice as we witnessed on many occasions in the past. We have been proposing in these columns that introduction of a second shift in the lower judiciary should be considered seriously to ensure speedy disposal of cases and a case management system be evolved for higher judiciary that should be considered sacrosanct by all stakeholders.
