Over 3m cases pending before country’s judiciary

More than three million cases of various natures are pending for adjudication before the entire judiciary of the country.
According to statistics, 19,362 cases of various natures including criminal, civil and constitutional petitions are pending before the Supreme Court. There is a backlog of 1,903 cases before the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). The backlog of cases before the Lahore High Court is 124,587. As many as 36,612 cases are pending before the Sindh High Court, whereas 9,776 cases are pending before the Peshawar High Court. As many as 5,619 cases are pending before the Balochistan High Court.
In the district judiciary of Punjab, there is a backlog of 895,213 cases. In the district judiciary of Sindh, there is a backlog of 103,899 cases. In the district judiciary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, there are 97,721 cases pending for adjudication, whereas in the district judiciary of Balochistan, the backlog of cases is 7,461.
According to legal experts, although the number of pending cases is decreasing day by day after the enforcement of National Judicial Policy (NJP) on July 1, 2009, however the required results could not be achieved so far due to certain reasons.
The NJP puts special emphasis on the disposal of cases pending with the courts for last 10 years, but the speed of disposal could not get momentum due to low-interest of lawyers, particularly in Punjab, non-compliance of court orders by government functionaries and acute shortage of judicial officers, a dominating majority of practicing lawyers believe.
Reports of civil and sessions courts of Punjab reveal that Lahore is on top when it comes to pending cases in the subordinate judiciary. The NJP was aimed to ensure speedy justice to all and quick disposal of pending cases within a timeframe, but officials in various departments, especially police, seemed reluctant to appear before the courts despite repeated summons, causing an inordinate delay in the disposal of cases, the reports stated. Inordinate delay in submission of challans by the police is also a major reason, which increases the delay. The reports mentioned load shedding as another factor circumventing the judicial work coupled with acute shortage of judicial officers and lack of proper courtrooms.
The reports say that the subordinate courts have tried their best to dispose of the pending cases with limited resources. The reports state that the courts tried to deliver best results in accordance with the timeframe described in the NJP for disposal of cases, but failed to achieve the targets. The reports hinted that the required results could not be achieved until the judicial policy is implemented in letter and spirit and the required judicial staff is recruited.