Judiciary of Pakistan

The judiciary of Pakistan is the national system of courts that maintains the law and order in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Pakistan uses a common law system, which was introduced during the colonial era, influenced by local medieval judicial systems based on religious and cultural practices. The Constitution of Pakistan lays down the fundamentals and working of the Pakistani judiciary.

Pakistan has two classes of courts: the superior (or higher) judiciary and the subordinate (or lower) judiciary. The superior judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Federal Shariat Court and five High Courts, with the Supreme Court at the apex. There is a High Court for each of the four provinces as well as the federal capital. The Constitution of Pakistan entrusts the superior judiciary with the obligation to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. The autonomous and disputed territories of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir have separate judicial systems from the main Pakistani system.

The independence of the Pakistani judiciary has changed over time. Whereas the judiciary used to defer to the Pakistani military, which is a dominant actor in Pakistan's politics, the judiciary has increasingly competed with and confronted the military.

The subordinate judiciary consists of civil and criminal district courts, and numerous specialized courts covering banking, insurance, customs and excise, smuggling, drugs, terrorism, taxation, the environment, consumer protection, and corruption. The criminal courts were created under the Criminal Procedure Code 1898, during the British Raj, and the civil courts were established by the West Pakistan Civil Court Ordinance 1962. There are also revenue courts that operate under the West Pakistan Land Revenue Act 1967. The government may also set up administrative courts and tribunals for exercising exclusive jurisdiction in specific matters.

As of 2017, Pakistan's judiciary is suffering from a backlog of two million cases, with lawsuits taking an average of nearly ten years to resolve. According to some estimates, 90 percent of civil cases involve land disputes, owing to Pakistan's lack of a proper land register.

The Supreme Court (KAS), established in 1956, is the apex court in Pakistan's judicial hierarchy, the final arbiter of legal and constitutional disputes. The court consists of a Chief Justice and sixteen other judges. There is also provision for appointment of acting judges as well as ad hoc judges in the court. It has a permanent seat in Islamabad as well as branch registries in Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi.

It has a number of de jure powers which are outlined in the constitution, including appellate and constitutional jurisdiction, and suo moto power to try human rights matters. Through several periods of military rule and constitutional suspensions, the court has also established itself as a de facto check on military power. The Supreme Court Judges are supervised by the Supreme Judicial Council.

After the appointment of Justice Qazi Faez Isa, there has come a significant change in the working of the apex court of the land. In an unprecedented act, the judicial proceedings are now televised in order to show the country how the superior court of the land works. Additionally, following the amendments by the Parliament, the suo moto powers of the Chief Justice have been curtailed as now in order for a suo moto case to be initiated, the 3 senior most judges must be in agreement that the matter is indeed of public importance and the court must act upon its powers and take up the case.