Asif Khattak
PTI government has proposed Criminal Law Reforms, 2022. One of the aims of such reforms is to ensure the speedy Justice in a country. For-which, they have set a nine-month period for trial courts to complete criminal trials, making it mandatory for the trial court to give an explanation to the high court in case it is unable to meet the deadline.It is pertinent to mention here, a country like the United Kingdom, which is world-renowned for its judicial system, has not set a time frame even though it takes almost a year and a half for their courts to decide a criminal trial. Moreover, a man who killed more then 50 worshipers in New Zealand Mosque was prima facie case but he was found guilty after a 16-month trial, despite having zero pendency in their criminal courts.These developed countries have not set a time frame for criminal trials because they know that such laws can duress their judges.In result, their judges might give a ill-considered decisions.Secondly, they know the spirit of, “Justice rushed is justice crushed”.The best way to overcome delay in the dispensation of justice, is to increase in the number of judges in lower as well as in superior courts. Because at present, there is 1 judge for about 70,000 people and 1 High Court judge for about 2 million people. Therefore; in my opinion, stipulating a time period for conclusion of criminal trial instead of increasing the number of judges is a Futile Reform.
