Easy and effective access to justice in an inexpensive and expeditious manner as a right
By Maqsood Ali
The identically hollow rhetoric of the chief justices of apex court has, since the independence of Pakistan, not been matching or even at present does not match with the dynamical changes urgently and essentially required for the easy access to justice in the manner that be effective, inexpensive and expeditious as an end product or the fruit achieving of which generally cost the victims hugely by way of forcibly selling their properties earned through their sweat and blood for the sake of justice that is still uneasy, ineffective, too expensive and wholly in-expeditious stretching over decades on end. The current judicial system is like a slow poisoning that squeezes untimely the lives of the victims not only economically but also spiritually especially when the justice that is gained without its spirit in it. To be honest and straight, when the apex judiciary commits injustices in various and numerous ways, the meaning of justice and the spirit of it dies a suffocating demise. In the backdrop of such harsh realities, hope ends in hopelessness.There are various barriers widely, persistently, massively and systemically erected by the judiciary at all levels to bar the victims’ access to justice. And lawyers’ community adds fuel to it in the name, under the guise and on the pretext representation, advocacy and justice or in other words looting and plundering for nearly no justice for decades on end or the justice that already turns valueless, spiritless and meaningless.
The reputation, fame, media attention, popularity and, above all, the very high salaries, free and large accommodations, luxury vehicles, nearly unending perks and privileges are the main points of attraction that predominantly drag the individuals into the career as judges and, in the wake of such famous and luxurious culture, the actual work of provision of inexpensive and expeditious justice along with its easy and effective access predominantly is left far behind being the persistently existing scenario as evidence. The luxurious comfort that,in various forms, is provided to the whole judiciary, including or in particular to the superior and apex one, by the public exchequer collected through the hard-earned sweat and blood of the general public has utterly failed to provide the rightful comfort to the same general public, the comfort that should be in the form of inexpensive and expeditious judicial remedies or justice along with the easy and effective access as well as actually having it and not that the shoes of the victims get torn, the colour of the clothes gets faded and faces of them get frowned and wrinkled in hopelessness while ending in a blind alley full of darkness or dismay. Such a massive, large scaled, systemic and persistent discomfort or dismay spreading over decades on end of the general public does not behove the luxurious judiciary and, in particular, the superior and apex one. If the superior and apex judiciary instead of sprouting mere common or generic rhetoric in the society focus more on correcting the systemic faults inherently existing in the current justice as system and improving ways and means by way of bringing more technologically innovative solutions guaranteeing the transparency, external participation in the functioning of the judiciary and its monitoring, the goal of inexpensive and expeditious justice along with easy and effective access can comfortably be achieved that undeniably is a fundamental right of the general public.
The technological solutions in Pakistan have already not only been existing but also flourishing in various public sectors and among those are educational institutions, NADRA, and latest in the police sector in form of safe city project Lahore and partly in the judicial sector as instance. Such like technological solutions not only help monitoring the security, safety and growth of the public but also or at the same time assist in the supervision of state functionaries working at the different locations and in various capacities. In other words, until/unless the whole judicial hierarchy is monitored externally along with the right to participation of the general public, the judicial system hardly turns effective, easy to access, inexpensive and expeditious in its orientation and conduct. The judicial accountability as to its daily functioning, external monitoring along the with right to public participation and other such involvements are the perquisite of the present time without which easy and effective access to justice in the manner that be inexpensive and expeditious will remain a dream of the devil.
The judicial remedies are considered as a last resort but it unfortunately has become a first option driven by the persistently habitual resistance of the executive administration, and in the aftermath of that, the judiciary blames the executive administration for failing to provide adequate remedies to the civilians’ grievances at the first stage of provision of justice and, in this fight between the two distinctive State organs, the victims become a shuttle cock destined to be additionally grind by the lawyers’ community in the name,under the guise and on the pretext representation, advocacy and justice. There is another strain, that remains quite large, severe and serious or persistently ever mountaineering between the bar and bench, awaits the victims at the cost of the very victims and, in the tug of the war among the three actors, the easy, meaningful and effective access to justice being at the same time inexpensive and expeditious is lost somewhere in space and if someone lucky enough happens to get some justice or part of it, he/she achieves it at the cost of his/her sweat and blood over a period of decades as an average when the meaning and fruit of justice gets its value already lost. In the wake of such bitter realities, the victims are heard to be saying of their having already forgiven and forgetting the culprit/s in serious and heinous crimes even. In other words, it is the time that heals the wounds of the victims of serious and heinous crimes and not the existing legal system that ironically and sadly happens to be far ancient in its foundation, grave in its character and is failing in its functions up to the level or at par with the present time-space. In that miserable background, the legal system requires a complete shift into a modern one grounded on electronic presence starting from the legalism, procedural capacity and functioning requiring all those involved, at the same time through the same electronic presence, to be transparent, productive, accountable and punishable in according with the complete public access to and participation in the electronic presence, a reality of the day. When the unwanted same or similar rhetoric of the superior or apex judiciary stops being repeated, instead the real and practical solutions are worked out and put in place consistently, the easy and effective access to justice along with its being inexpensiveness and expedition is bound to become a reality, a truth of the day.
The working culture of the judiciary predominantly is colonial in its nature as well as functioning and the irony is that the whole judiciary, including the superior and apex one in particular, is utterly unwilling to change it from ruling into serving and it’s a question of a mind-set that is still ruling in its orientation, conduct and everyday functioning. In the backdrop of present day reality, the courts’ activities are required to be transparent, accessible and intelligible to different communities in order to make the daily functioning of the judges visible, monitor-able and accountable. Irony is that the present private media covers the popular cases but hardly focuses on the everyday functioning, monitoring and examining the administration of the judiciary on day by day, weekly or monthly basis.Under such harsh facts and circumstances existing in the judicial arena both the victims and accused remain prone to be exploited in the name,under the guise and on the pretext representation, advocacy and justice.
In the current scenario, one political party that emerged in the name of justice movement has come into power and now another one, with same or similar underlying notion of equality and justice for all through the religious medium, apparently is emerging much faster, than the presently ruling justice movement party, and gaining momentum along with the power to jam the whole country for a while that the currently ruling justice movement party could not do so for decades on end and hardly succeeded partly once in Islamabad or rarely at any other time. In a nut shell, if the superior or apex judiciary continues focusing on their efforts to increase their salaries into millions and millions more, persistently pressurizing the executive governments to buy for the individuals judges expensive vehicles with added security staff and lofty walls around their ever-growing free and spacious housing colonies, industrial styled luxurious offices along with an army of servants, unending lust for popularity and tacit intimidation in the hearts of the general public and, in particular, in the minds of the critics in the name, under guise or on the pretext of contempt of court or the like and hide behind other immunities of various types, the easy and effective access of the general public to justice in the manner or method that be inexpensive and expeditious as a right remains a distant dream surviving in hopelessness and it is food for the thoughts of all of us. It is my saying, if you provide even a simple food to a hungry person, he will be grateful and if you provide expensive food from a luxurious restaurant to a person with the already his belly full of food, he will devalue it and ignorantly forget to thank you even and that seems the case with the Pakistani judiciary, to say the least.
Maqsood Ali: the writer has studied International Human Rights Law; therefore, doesn’t like enforced disappearance, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. He can be reached at [email protected]
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