THE legal system in Pakistan does not serve its people. The systemic problems of our courts are widely acknowledged. Civil disputes remain pending for decades. By the time many civil disputes conclude they cease to matter much to the people who initiate them.

Legal proceedings do not follow rules. The process is arbitrary and almost always bewildering for the parties involved. Because rules for admissibility of cases are not enforced, frivolous litigation is admitted rather than dismissed at an early stage. Such litigation is either filed by the party to harass another or gain some bargaining advantage. Sometimes it is filed because a lawyer, in search for a brief, has wrongly advised a client that their case has merit.

Criminal courts regularly violate the fundamental rights of defendants. Our criminal courts are not independent from the executive as they work with law-enforcement agencies to deny the right to fair trial. Police torture and fabrication of evidence are common practices that are acknowledged and accepted by judges. Defendants are convicted on the basis of weak or made-up evidence. Human rights violations are even more severe in antiterrorism courts that are supposed to try terrorists but mostly conduct trials of regular........

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