The Judiciary

When something goes wrong in Pakistan, when a contract is broken, when a relative is detained, when a piece of land is grabbed, the place you eventually end up is a court. Most Pakistanis avoid courts because the system feels foreign. It is not foreign. It is yours. The judges are paid from the same taxes you pay on your mobile recharge. Knowing the structure of the courts is the first step to making the system work for you instead of against you.

Pakistan's court system is a pyramid with three big floors. At the top sits the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in Islamabad, with a Chief Justice and around sixteen other judges. It is the final court of appeal and it interprets the constitution. Below it sit five High Courts: the Lahore High Court, the Sindh High Court, the Islamabad High Court, the Peshawar High Court, and the Balochistan High Court. Each High Court covers one province or territory. Below the High Courts sit district and sessions courts in every major city, then civil judges and magistrates in every tehsil. Most cases of ordinary citizens start at the lowest floor and stay there.

Now the procedure that touches most people: the FIR, or First Information Report. If a crime happens to you or your family, you walk into the nearest police station, the thana that has jurisdiction over the place where the crime happened, and you ask the duty officer to register an FIR. By law under Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the police must register your FIR if you describe a cognisable offence. They will sometimes refuse. They will say, come back tomorrow, or, the SHO is not here. Both are stalling tactics. You have remedies.

If the police refuse to register your FIR, three steps. One: write a written complaint to the SP of the district, by hand, two copies, get one stamped as received. Two: if the SP also refuses, file a petition under Section 22A of the CrPC before the Justice of Peace, who is usually the senior civil judge of the district. The Justice of Peace can order the police to register the FIR. Three: if even that fails, a writ petition in the High Court under Article 199 of the constitution. Each step costs less than two thousand rupees in court fees. The whole sequence is a citizen's right; the police know this and most officers fold by step two.

A word about the lawyer you will eventually hire. The Pakistan Bar Council and the four provincial bar councils maintain public lists. Fees vary wildly: a sessions court lawyer in Lahore can be hired for ten to twenty thousand rupees per case at the lower end, and a Supreme Court lawyer in Islamabad can charge ten lakhs and upwards. For most family disputes, civil claims, and small criminal matters, a competent district level lawyer is enough. Ask your union council, ask your community elders, ask the family lawyer of someone you trust. The most expensive lawyer is rarely the right lawyer.