Justice delayed is justice denied I. Introduction II. Proof of the failure of judicial system III.

Does hope of judicial activism provide relief to the people? No. V. Causes of the failure of judicial system. A. Presence of the outdated laws. 1. Anti-terrorism Act 2. Qanoon-e- Shahadat law B. Lack of professionalism in the law enforcement agencies 1. Absence of culture of forensic evidence collection. (a) Cases of Ajmal Pahari, Kamran Madhuri and others C. Absence of eye-witness protection programme 1. Cases of Wali Baber, Sher Shah and 12th May. D. Low investment 1. Low salaries of the lower judiciary and low infrastructure. E. Low security of judges 1. Mumtaz Qadri case and others . Consequences of the failure of judiciary A. Increasing lawlessness 1. Increasing mob violence 2. Increasing incidents of terrorism 3. Increasing support for parallel judicial system . Remedies A. Introduction of new laws and amendment of the existing laws B. Enhancement of professionalism in law enforcement agencies by training C. Introduction of witness protection programme D. Increase of investment in judicial sector E. Enhancement of the security of judges . Conclusion No society can exist without justice. And justice is delivered to the people by a strong, viable judiciary. Judiciary, being one of the important organs of the state, plays significant role in the stability of society, as it provides quick relief to the public. But when justice is delayed, the failure of judiciary starts. As a result, society plunges into anarchy. In case of Pakistan, this also holds true. Judiciary cannot deliver justice expeditiously to the people. Thus, the country is plagued with extremism, terrorism and sectarianism. In short, judicial system has failed to deliver swift and cheap justice to the peoples of Pakistan owing to various reasons. The proof of the failure of the judicial system can be estimated by the presence of a huge pile of cases pending with both lower and superior judiciary. For instance, it is speculated that there are 1.1 million cases pending with the lower courts; about 1, 50,000 cases are yet to be heard in the high courts ; and nearly 17000 cases are to be heard in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. According to the report of International Crisis Group (ICG), released in 2010, it would take more or less between 10 and 20 years to dispose of these cases. Hence,

justice delayed is justice denied. However, many people believe that the activist judiciary will tackle the problem of delayed justice sooner or later. They argue that with the arrival of the era of judicial activism, the public will get justice and those who hide behind the power corridors will be taken to task. If the above mentioned argument is taken into consideration, one will reach to the conclusion that indeed the judiciary has pursued many cases which were unthinkable before this judicial activism like the Rental Power case, the Mehran gate case,the Memo gate case, the Mushrraf case, the Shahzahib murder case and such others. But one can ask whether the activism of judiciary provides any relief to the common people. The answer is big no! The reason is crystal clear: while the apex court takes the cases vigorously, the lower judiciary is infested with tens of thousands of cases. So, it is a Sisyphean task to expect swift justice under the given circumstances. Unless the underlying causes of the failure of judicial system are sorted out, the problem of delayed justice will not die down. One of the causes of the failed judicial system is the presence of outdated laws like Antterrorism ACT (ATA) 1997. This law was promulgated when Pakistan was plagued with the peril of sectarianism. Today, circumstances have changed for worse, as the country is grappling with the burgeoning menace of terrorism, so the law has no teeth to apprehend the would-be terrorist. For example, according to a report of the superior judiciary, it was evaluated that over 231 the would-be terrorists who were caught on the charges of terrorism between 1990 and 2012 were acquitted owing to this law. Similar to ATA, the Law of Evidence Act (Qanoon-e-Shahdat) 1984 is also a cause of concern. The main problem of this act is that it solely relies on the eye witness, whereas it gives minor importance to modern forensic evidence like DNA report which is the most authentic evidence in modern world. Because of over reliance on the evidence of the eye witness, many people do not get justice. As a consequence, they look for parallel judicial system which is swift and cheap. Another reason behind the failure of judicial system can be traced to the lack of professionalism of the law enforcement agencies in collection of evidence. It is no denying fact that law enforcement agencies have no training regarding the collection of forensic evidence which may convict a perpetrator of a crime. For instance, a high court acquitted nine nominated criminals in a case of an army surgeon general in 2008. The judge of the case, Justice Akhlaq Hussain, stated that prosecution had miserably failed to produce any evidence against the nominated criminals. This is because the police could not collect proper evidence to put criminals behind the bars. Likewise, the cases against Ajmal pahari, the killer of over 200 people, and Kamran maduri, the well-known assassin of the policemen, did not proceed as the police failed to provide any authentic evidence against them. But sometimes the required evidences or eye witnesses are available with the authority concerned, yet people do not get justice. The reason is crystal-clear: either evidence is deliberately misplaced or the eyewitnesses are harassed or killed. In this respect, the case of Wali Baber, a Geo TV reporter, is apposite to give here. He was murdered while reporting in a sensitive area. However, his killers were identified by some eye witnesses and some evidences were collected against them. But instead of securing evidences and providing protection the eye witnesses, the police remained apathetic to the case. As a consequence, all the evidences were willfully destroyed and all the eye witnesses were deliberately allowed to be killed. Since then Wali Babers parents are looking for justice which is nowhere to be seen.

Besides this, there is a great need of investment in the judicial sector. And unfortunately the judicial sector is the lowest investment sector. The salaries of the lower court judges are lower than those of the higher and superior courts. Moreover, the deteriorating infrastructures like dilapidated buildings and rickety transportation facilities for prisoners are some of the problems of the judiciary that is struggling to dispense justice to the people with in its meager resources. Finally, the security of the judges is also one of the factors of the failure of judiciary. Judges in lower and high courts are not provided proper security. They are either intimidated or harassed. For example, the judge who sentenced life imprisonment to Mumtaz Qadri , the murderer of governor Punjab Salman Taseer, was harassed by lawyers who even entered his chamber to kill him, but luckily he escaped unhurt. Eventually, he left the county along with his family owing to death threats. This was the high profile case that came to lime light of media; however, there are many cases which are not brought to light in which judges are hounded out or killed. If the honorable judges are not safe, then how will they dispense even-handed justice to the public? The consequences of the failed judicial system are gravest which can be seen in the form of lawlessness. The glimpse of the lawlessness can be noticed in the increasing mob violence in our society. Every now and again we hear of lynching of the people on the name of theft or dacoity in villages and cities. Even the alleged people are not dacoit or thief they are lynched on the basis of suspicion. This directs to the common thinking that is brewing in the minds of the people for many years. People think that since the judiciary has completely failed to provide justice to the people, they have authority to take law into their own hands to punish the criminals. And ill-luck would have it; this type of vigilante thinking is spreading like wildfire. Failure of judiciary is not limited to the mob violence. The effect of it can be descried in increasing incidents of terrorism. So far many terrorists have been acquitted from the courts owing to the absence of either eye witness or evidence, so the attacks on Mehran Base in Karachi, assault on GHQ in Rawalpindi, intrusion on PAF in Chaklala and invasion on Peshawar Airport indicate that terrorists have become emboldened. They know that even if they are caught, they will be released by the authority concerned. Thus, their attacks are getting lethal day by day. Last but not least, owing to the failure of judiciary, the support for the parallel judicial system is increasing. In this connection, the growning strength of Penchayat system in the villages of Sindh and Punjab and burgeoning power of the Taliban-type judicial system in Fata, in some parts of Khyberpakhtunkhwa and some pockets of Karachi indicate the coming anarchy. Nevertheless, it is said it is never too late to mend. So, there is a chance that the judicial system can improve itself. Therefore, following recommendations should be borne in the mind to ameliorate the judiciary: One; the new laws must be introduced and existing laws should be amended. Pakistan is grappling with the menace of terrorism, so it requires such laws that are compatible with the prevailing situation. Fortunately, the former government of PPP introduced a number of laws which are quite helpful to eradicate the danger of terrorism such as Regulations (In the Aide of Civil Powers) Actions Act 2011, Fair Trial Bill 2012 and many others. Regarding the existing laws, these laws should be amended in such a way that they should be in line with the present situation.

Two; it is the need of the hour that law enforcement agencies ought to enhance their professionalism in handling of substantial evidence to convict the criminals. In order to achieve this, they must improve their training. Three; the introduction of the witness-protection program is a must. In the cases of Ajmal Pahari, Kamran madhuri and Wali Baber all the eye witnesses were killed systematically because of the absence of the program. Had the program been in place, the killers would have been nabbed. Four; the investment in judicial sector must be increased. Finally, the security of the judges should be made compulsory. To sum up, the judiciary in Pakistan has miserably failed to provide expeditious and cheap justice to the people because of many reasons. Thus, the country has fallen into the bottomless pit of chaos .However, if the aforementioned suggestions are taken seriously, the judiciary will improve. Hazrat Ali (R.A) said, A country can be governed with her esy but not with injustice. Hence, justice occupies the conspicuous position regarding the survival of a country. Therefore, judiciary must improve its judicial system. It is hoped that it will improve in near future. IT IS REQUESTED TO SENIORS AS WELL AS JUNIORS TO EVALUATE MY ESSAY. PLEASE, FIND ANY MISTAKE AND GIVE ME SOME SUGGESTIONS. I AM WAITING FOR POSITIVE RESPONSE...