Parliament ought to amend outdated laws to ensure swift justice: ex-CJP Gulzar

Former chief justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed said on Thursday parliament ought to make necessary amendments in the outdated laws and procedural system to ensure speedy dispensation of justice.

Addressing a seminar titled ‘Justice Delayed Justice Denied: Challenges for Pakistan’s Justice System and Possible Solutions”, organised by the Pakistan Council on Foreign Relations, the former CJP said that parliamentarians ought to have tabled such amendments to ensure that laws are updated, but it has not been done yet.

He said that although parliament and the executive are facing their own challenges and struggling for their survival, but it is expected that they will make amendments to laws to streamline the lengthy procedural system.

Justice Gulzar said the judiciary on its own had made a committee and commissions with the assistance of lawyers to resolve the issue of delay in the disposal of cases. He said the law and justice commission had made several recommendations to the government for necessary amendments to the procedural laws to ensure early disposal of cases in courts.

He was of the view that arbitration is a good tool for deciding cases, but parties do not agree with the arbitration and approach courts for getting a decree in their favour. He said that the district judiciary has also faced a shortage of judges and it is quite alarming that candidates have failed to pass tests for the posts of civil judges and magistrates.

The former CJP suggested that the strength of district judges and high court judges should be increased as per the population of the districts and the provinces. He said that frivolous litigation should be discouraged by the courts and litigants involved in false litigation should be penalised under the law.

He said lawyers should be given timeframe for completing their arguments in the case and the courts are bound to deliver judgments as early as possible. He said that miscellaneous matters keep piling up in the courts and take so much time of judges as they cannot have sufficient time to hear the main cases and decide them.

Justice Gulzar said the law and justice commission was established especially for dealing with the issues of delay in the disposal of cases and suggesting amendments to laws, and it has done substantial work in this regard by making suggestions to parliament, but incidentally they have never seen the light of the day.

Former attorney general Anwar Mansoor Khan emphasized the need for upgrading the British-era laws. He said case management is the most important aspect which need to be dealt with by the judiciary. He said amendments in the civil procedure as well as alternate dispute resolution would help in reducing the number of cases.

Former Sindh High Court Bar Association president Salahuddin Ahmed called for setting up a task force in the judiciary to address the issue of the lengthy litigation system and suggest ways to deal with such issues in a systematic way.

The speakers also made several suggestions to improve the lengthy litigation process, including amendments to outdated laws and court rules, action over filing frivolous cases, digitalisation of courts, and appointments of judges on merit and their proper training.

PCFR Secretary Ahsan Mukhtar Zubairi and former ambassador GR Baluch said that judiciary has a fundamental role to maintain the order of the society. They said that delayed justice is an important subject in contemporary Pakistan as delay in deciding cases has become a core issue in the judiciary, and that is causing discomfort in the society.