Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Gulzar Ahmed, has said that about 12,968 cases had been decided, including 6,797 Civil Petitions, 1,916 Civil Appeals, 459 Civil Review Petitions, 2,625 Criminal Petitions, 681 Criminal Appeals, 37 Criminal Review Petitions and 100 Criminal Original Petitions during the previous judicial year 2020-21. The Chief Justice of Pakistan was addressing the opening ceremony of the new judicial year in Islamabad, during which he gave a brief account of the performance of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and model courts located across the country. According to the Chief Justice, about 45,644 cases were pending at the beginning of the previous judicial year while about 20,910 fresh cases were instituted during the year. Chief Justice of Pakistan identified the adjournments as the main reason for the backlog of cases due to absence of advocates who were unable to reach Islamabad due to various reasons, such as, personal emergencies, or engagements at their own stations. Chief Justice noted that the video-link facility has played an active and key part in ensuring the smooth operation of the judicial functions throughout the Pandemic and has prevented unnecessary adjournments. CJP discussed the performance of the human rights cell at the Supreme Court of Pakistan and appreciated the working of Model Courts across the country. Chief Justice shed light on the nationwide digitalization of the Judicial system, training activities of Judicial Academy, provision of justice during the COVID-19 pandemic and establishment of District Legal Empowerment Committees (DLECs) for provision of free legal services to the poor litigants across the country. Judiciary is an important organ of the state of Pakistan, which interprets the constitution of the country, provides justice to the people, ensures equality among the citizens and plays an important role in implementation of constitution in the country. The honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan briefly highlighted the one-year achievements of the Supreme Court and 442 model courts but did not shed light on the condition of local/district courts across the country which exhibit the worst scenario in all aspects including plenty of cases, corruption and poor performance of the staff and the adjudicators. Due to flaws in the judicial and prosecutorial system, culprits are roaming freely in the country and innocent people are compelled to endure the prison without committing any offence.
Today, weak investigations, hired/paid witnesses, registration of false/biased FIRs, dishonest prosecution and faulty decisions have damaged the whole justice system of the country. There is a need to end all these false practices which have earned bad names for our esteemed institutions. The honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan has termed the lawyers and bar councils/ associations as backbone of the justice system. However, it is an open secret that Lawyers have been involved in beating of Police, Doctors, Students and Journalists, in a bid to demonstrate their superiority in the society. The honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan is working vigorously for the improvement in the Country’s Judicial System, hopefully, he will be able to rectify all these hurdles during the coming days.
