Legal experts said on Friday the Supreme Court (SC) was overburdened with hearings of high profile cases such as institutional corruption and breach of constitution and was therefore delaying hearings of common litigants.
The court expressed concerns that laws were being ignored by executive authorities while taking important decisions, adding that the Law Ministry’s handling of the appointment of Justice (r) Deedar Hussain Shah as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman showed its weak knowledge of the law.
Legal experts said the Supreme Court (SC) generally heard government-level cases frequently but decisions were still being delayed as the government’s legal team was misguiding the executive authorities in hearing of constitutional disputes. Likewise, decision of matters involving corruption, mismanagement and breach of human rights were also taking months.
According to senior lawyers, such lengthy cases were increasing delays and were creating problems for common litigants. They said the court was currently engaged in dozens of such cases, which had taken months and years to be decided. They said the government’s delay tactics in implementation of court decisions were also prolonging cases that had already been disposed. They said further the court should first clear the backlog of routine cases so that litigants could be given some relief.
Senior lawyers said the court was currently busy dealing with high profile cases such as the mismanagement in Haj affairs, Rs 5 billion corruption scam in the National Insurance Corporation Limited (NICL), the Bank of Punjab (BoP) Rs 9 billion loan scam, smuggling through International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) containers, illegal writing-off loans of over Rs 256 billion, review plea against the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict and the presidential reference to revisit the death sentence of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Lawyers with pending cases in the SC said filing of a large number of petitions of corruption scandals, perceived constitutional deviations and violation of human rights had overloaded the apex court to the extent that ordinary litigants were starting to feel ignored.
Supreme Court Bar Association President Asma Jehangir said the tendency to adjourn cases, often after several hours of waiting, increased sufferings of litigants. She said litigants traveling from remote cities were financially-burdened when cases were deferred without any headway. “It is a boon for lawyers if the case is adjourned frequently,” said a senior constitutional lawyer, conceding that the financial impact was huge on the general public as important cases generally consumed the entire day in court.
