Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmad has said that the justice system of the country needs to be expeditious and the state needs to make more investment for the purpose, so that it could be made more accessible to people. Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed was addressing the launching ceremony of a book titled “Citators of Civil & Criminal Law and district judiciary bench”. According to Chief Justice of Pakistan, more judges were required to be appointed to the district judiciary besides improvement in structure and other facilities to secure the goal. The Chief Justice Observed that the book covered all major topics and hoped that it would prove beneficial for the district judiciary in managing and deciding the cases speedily. He said, book cannot be an alternative to research, as the work of a judge was based on research, which was a laborious task. He hoped that the book would improve with the passage of time and more topics would be added to it. He said that COVID-19 also affected the working of the courts, but all measures were taken to ensure that delivery of justice was not delayed. The State of Pakistan inherited its judiciary System from British India and after Independence, no such comprehensive changes had been made to transform the judicial system in line with the latest changes and gradual development in the society of the country. The government of Pakistan only increased the numbers of courts or established new courts at district, division, or provincial level as per requirements. However, no government or higher judiciary ever tried to bring vital reforms in the basic functioning or hierarchy of the district or higher judiciary of the country. Over more than seven decades of independence, the country remained unable to change the court’s system, its functioning and matters pertaining to speedy provision of justice to the public. The reason is very simple because civil government could not bring change due to its ignorance from the system. Our judges are good in their profession, but they usually never act as an administrator during their career, so these administrative jobs mostly remained asides. Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain and Chief Justice Saqib Nisar displayed much activism but remained failed to bring reforms particularly in lower courts to provide relief to the common man. Due to these reasons, till time most of the administrative work or processing of the cases are being done solely by a clerk called reader.
Anyone or lawyer can delay serving of justice to his opponent for years with the help of reader/ clerk. Usually no Judge takes interests in such administrative matters and these remain up to reader’s discretion. The case moves with the wish of reader and lawyer or the person who spend money therefore, the suffering of the public remains continue due to delayed justice. It is suggestable to honorable Chief Justice that besides increasing numbers of courts the check must be impose on Judges, lawyers, and other hierarchy to decide the case in a limited time instead of lingering it up to years and decades. The non-compliance by the judges or lawyers may bear consequences in kind of promotion, reputation, or appointment to a lower category.
