LAHORE: Legal experts say reforms in the judicial system are essential to provide affordable and quick justice to the common man in Pakistan for which academia, bars and judiciary will have to work together.

They were addressing a round table conference on ‘The Role of Mediation in Enhancing Access to Justice in Pakistan’ jointly organised by the Punjab University Law College and the Institute for Legal Research and Advocacy.

On this occasion, PU Law College Principal Prof Dr Shazia Qureshi, Punjab Bar Council Vice Chairman Kamran Bashir Mughal, Institute for Legal Research and Advocacy Board of Directors Chairman Syed Shahbaz Bukhari, Institute for Legal Research and Advocacy Board of Advisers Chairman Zafar Iqbal Kalanauri, Associate Professor Dr Naeemullah Khan and students were present.

Mr Kalanauri said: “Our judicial system runs on paper evidence, while there are some other systems to resolve disputes out of court around the world.”

He said in Pakistan, every provincial court interpret several laws differently which lead to disputes.

He said in Pakistan, there were disputes over marriage, dowry, money, women and land while the mediation system could play a positive role in solving these matters. He said if reforms were not made in the judicial system, it would take 320 years to solve the existing cases in courts.

He said all the renowned lawyers in Pakistan and other countries were connected with the Punjab University.

Mr Mughal said laws did exist in Pakistan but the problem was their enforcement in letter and spirit. He said bar councils would continue to play their role in implementation of laws and many laws needed to be amended.

He said the judicial system revolved around the bar council.

Mr Bukhari said there were family laws in Pakistan, but due to lack of proper practice, the rate of divorce was increasing.

He said there were a large number of companies in the country but according to the governing law, they did not hire legal advisers.

He said if the companies were compelled to follow the law, the job opportunities for the lawyers would increase.

He said each judge had a cause list of about 150 cases a day, while in other countries the judge’s cause list bears only two or three cases.

He said the arbitration system had to be reformed and implemented to resolve pending cases in the courts.

Prof Qureshi said the organisers deserved congratulations for bringing together academic and legal experts on one platform for legal discussion.

She said we also got to learn from such activities along with the students and links between academia and courts should be promoted in Pakistan like other countries.

Dr Khan said before the Constitution, people used to settle matters among themselves and there was a resistance to the arbitration system in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2024