Justice delayed is justice denied
Judicial reform is much talked about but close to nothing has been done to achieve fair and speedy justice from the courts. This problem is most prevalent at the district courts level where justice is delayed due to rampant corruption within the system that allows money and power to negatively influence the conventional procedure of a trial.
The ‘Pilot Criminal Justice Project’, which is aimed at providing speedy justice by doing away with the normal procedure of having multiple hearings with unnecessarily long gaps in between, has been announced in four districts of Punjab.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, a Supreme Court (SC) judge, has likened the project to CPEC, saying that it would be a game changer for the judiciary. The project is a welcome initiative that could go a long way in improving a system that has become too comfortable with a process of justice that is too long, expensive and unfair.
There will be some challenges that the SC will face before it can expand the scope of the project and implement it in other cities and provinces. Firstly it is not just about the lawyers, judges and the courts; any trial depends heavily on the ancillary bodies that provide vital input to a case and in the absence of their support the project is bound to fail.
Secondly there will be significant resistance from lawyers and judges who rely on trials to continue without a decision for a significant period of time – often years – for their financial benefit. That culture has to stop and this project – on the face of it – has the capacity to address this issue.
The Panama Leaks’ case has the privilege of being heard by the top court on a daily basis because the country’s prime minister and the main opposition party are the defendants and prosecution respectively. Given that this pilot project is a success, less important cases could be heard with the same urgency at the district level upwards and the lost confidence in the judicial process could be regained.