Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali spoke for a majority of the Pakistani people when he expressed concern at undue delays in the disposal of cases. That the law’s delays are alienating the citizens from the justice system is no secret. The survival of the jirga system in various parts of the country, despite the superior courts’ repeated strictures, is often attributed to citizens’ disenchantment with the formal judicial system.
Also unexceptionable is the chief justice’s observation that the judiciary cannot be blamed for the weaknesses of other institutions involved with the administration of justice, such as the investigating and prosecution agencies and the authorities responsible for implementing the judicial verdicts.
However, when the chief justice said that there was nothing wrong with the time-tested judicial system he might not have been unaware of the dents made in the system by questionable amendments in the laws, especially in the Penal Code, the Anti-Terrorism Act, and the Army Act and by the enactment of laws such as the Protection of Pakistan Act.
