The burden of justice

A large number of pending cases in the courts serve as a chilling reminder that there aren’t a sufficient number of judges to deal with legal disputes in a seemingly efficient manner. A report that was released during the end of 2017 revealed that there are 1,869,886 cases pending in different courts of Pakistan, including Supreme Court, high courts and other subordinate courts.

If the statistics provided in the report are anything to go by, we have 4,000 judges across Pakistan. This suggests that a single judge has to hear between 40 and 50 cases in a day. It is, therefore, practically impossible to ensure justice delivery. At this stage, suitable steps need to be taken to ease the burden on existing judges. The government should be expected to appoint a specific number of judges on an annual basis. This will ensure that legal matters are handled with efficacy and culprits are duly punished.

Sanaullah Kalwar

Kashmore